Fighting for our Future
by NoxisZero
Summary: A/U Unknown to the masses, as the attack of the fusion dimension draws near, Reiji is forced to rely on Yuya Sakaki's Pendulum Summoning to repel the invading forces. As the ever nearing end of peaceful days approach, a boy joins the You Show Duel School and the winds of change start to blow.
1. Mechanics of a Field Spell

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

The crowds cheered, it had happened, the great Strong Ishijima who was the reigning champion, had lost. A boy with a new summoning method had overpowered the man in one move. This was one of the most monumental duels in history. Later that day, multiple news channels, that had video of the event, talked about it on and on. Sakaki Yuya became a celebrity overnight.

A boy around the age of 14 sat on a couch re-watching the footage for the event. He had short black hair and blue eyes. He had a red hoodie on with black running pants. He wore white socks and red and black shoes.

"Nazo! Time for dinner!" called a woman from the kitchen.

The young boy turned, "Ah! Ok coming!" with that, the boy turned off the Television and headed towards the kitchen where a pleasant smell emanated from.

As the boy and his mother sat down to eat, the boy spoke up, "Mom, I am going to the You Show Duel School tomorrow to join."

The mother sighed, "We have been over this Nazo. I know that you like dueling, and I would love nothing more than you to go out and make friends, but that can only happen once you finish school. Your grades are more important that dueling. Once summer break starts, you can join any duel school you like."

Nazo sighed, "But it is near the end of the school year! All the exams are already done!"

The mother shook her head, "No means no, Nazo, and that is final."

Nazo's shoulders slumped, but he made no response back. His mother was never supportive of his interesting in dueling. She thought that it would be more beneficial for him to get a job that did not depend on pleasing the masses. Her own occupation supported her point of view. She worked as a simple salary woman.

Nazo's father was much more supportive of his interests. It could have been the fact that his father was an engineer, and a high quality one at that, of duel disks and solid vision machines for Leo Corporation, or that he was extremely tolerant of everybody and everyone. His personality allowed anyone multiple chances with him before he would draw a conclusion.

When Nazo as 10 years old, his father bought him a starter deck, as well as 5 booster packs, and proceeded to help him make an amiable deck. His father would pour over rule books with him, read effects aloud to him, and search the internet for interesting cards with him. His father did keep his wife's interests in mind as well. For every A on his report card, he would get a choice of a booster. This pushed Nazo to get good grades to keep up his interest in dueling. More often than not, his father would agree to duel Nazo. The father always gave Nazo the best cards, while he used the left over cards. Oddly enough, the father won just as much as Nazo. When asked why his father did not go pro with such amazing skills, the father would laugh, pick up Nazo and set him on his lap, and pat his head while saying, "I don't need the fame or the glory. I have you and your mother, and that is enough for a guy like me."

He would often tell Nazo to not get good grades for cards, but learn the material for the chance for the future, and see the cards as a reward for a job well done. When Nazo would get to the age when he had to decide between a pro duelist and something else, he would have the knowledge and maturity to choose correctly.

As Nazo lay in bed, thinking of what had happened at the duel stadium today; his father knocked on his door and opened it.

Nazo sat up and smiled, "Dad! Did you see what happened today?!"

The man nodded and sat down next to Nazo on the bed, "I did, and I also heard that you wanted to join the You Show Duel School tomorrow."

Nazo nodded, "Yeah, but mom said I couldn't until summer break starts…"

The father gave a chuckle and patted the boy on his head, "Look at it this way Nazo, tomorrow, almost every kid your age is going to be trying to join that school. They aren't going to think you are better than everyone else there. You couldn't even show off your abilities; there would be so much people. School ends in a week though. After that, the hype will have gone down, and people will not be crowding the establishment. You would have relative ease signing up. Then, as the new kid, people would be interested in seeing your potential, showcasing your talents."

Nazo put a hand to his chin in thought. His dad, as usual, was right. It would be more beneficial to wait. After a while Nazo nodded and told his father he would wait. His father gave a sincere smile and patted him on the head before wishing him sweet dreams and exiting.

-§-

Days later, Nazo placed down his backpack into his room and walked up to his mother to hand in his report card.

"I'm off to sign up now!" called Nazo as he walked toward the door.

"Wait a second! Your father left something for you! Look in the Living room!"

Nazo scrunched his face in confusion, and took a peek into the living room. A red and black duel disk sat on the living room table, and note sat beside it. Intrigued, Nazo scooped up the note and read it.

-Nazo

I know that you are excited about signing up for this duel school. It is not only a chance to get to know more people to duel, but also a chance to better yourself as a duelist. What I want to tell you is never get disheartened even if you lose. There will be good and bad times, but you will get through them. I made this duel disk just for you. There is a separate function that activates when you play your field spells, so don't be surprised. Sincerely,

-Ryo

Nazo picked up the duel disk and examined it. It looked like any other store bought one, but Nazo decided to use it. He set his generic white one down on the table, before placing the duel disk in his pocket and running out the door. Ten minutes later, Nazo walked into the small building of You Show Duel School, to find only a few children and one adult inside.

Nazo looked around curiously before waving, "Umm Hello?"

The man bounded over to him, "Are you here to sign up for the You Show Duel School?"

Nazo grinned, "I sure am, is there a place I can register or?"

A few seconds later he was sitting on a couch with a pen in hand slowly scrawling out information on a sign-up sheet.

"Hello! What is your name?"

Nazo raised his head to find a small girl with red hair smiling at him. He gave a smile back while responding, "Nazo, Nazo Ryukesoku."

The girl's smile brightened, "Nice to meet you Nazo! My name is Ayu! I hope we get along!"

Nazo gave a warm smile, "I will look forward to getting to know you as well."

The girl pumped her fist in the air and motioned the other boys to talk to Nazo. Nazo stopped writing to get to know the three little children. The blue haired on was Tatsuya, while the chubby one was Futoshi. They were excited that another person was joining the duel school. They went on talking about the failure that had happened a week ago, but where stopped by the boy who was eating a lollipop.

"You guys, let him finish…"

Nazo turned to face the blue-haired ponytailed boy, "They weren't really bothering me, but leaving that aside, what is your name? I'm Nazo."

The boy smiled, "Sora, pleasure to meet you."

Nazo nodded and finished the sheet. After he handed it in, the four came up to him asking him for a duel. Nazo smiled, "Sure who wants to go first?"

Sora stepped forward. "I will."

Nazo shrugged, "suit yourself."

The two entered the duel room, while Shuzo stood in the area above, operating the solid vision machine.

Shuzo's voice came through the speaker, "Action field on! Candy land!"

The solid vision machine activated, and the area around them changed, forming trees made of gumdrops, lakes made of chocolate, houses of gingerbread and frosting, and a pathway made of candy cane bricks ran across the field.

Sora seemed to like the area, if anything was to be assumed by his excited look.

Nazo sighed then called out, "Duelists locked in battle!"

Sora smirked and continued, "Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!"

The pair continued on, "They storm through this field! Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling! ACTION DUEL!"

Sora raised his hand, "You can go first."

4000 Nazo cards: 5

4000 Sora cards: 5

Nazo nodded, "I activate foolish burial! This allows me to send Tuner monster, Dragunity Phalanx to the grave!"

His deck spat out a card and Nazo promptly placed it in the graveyard. "Now I play Dragunity Dux!" A man dressed in an outfit resembling an eagle came forth. "Now his effect allows him to equip a dragon type monster that has a level of 3 or lower to himself as an equip card, so I equip Phalanx!" A dagger appeared in Dux's hand.

Now the effect of Phalanx! Once per turn, I can special summon Phalanx from the spell and trap card zone! Dux threw the dagger to his side and in a flash of light a small purple dragon in heavy tan armor appeared. "Now I synchro summon!"

The tuner monster jumped into the air before turning into two rings that enveloped Dux.

"I summon out Dragunity Knight – Vajrayana!" A red dragon with a spear wielding rider descended to the field.

"Vajrayana effect! I can re-equip Phalanx!" the dagger once again appeared. "And I can re-summon it to the field!"

The dagger yet again formed the dragon covered in armor. "Synchro summon once more, Come forth Scrap Dragon!"

The two combined yet again to form a purplish dragon with metal hanging off it. Steam leaked from a pipe on its wing.

"I now set one card and end my turn."

Sora smiled, Draw!

Nazo: 4000 Cards: 2

Sora: 4000 Cards 6

"I start by playing the continuous spell card Toy Vendor! I can discard one card to draw the next card and reveal it! If it is a fluffal monster I can special summon it, if not, I discard it."

A large coin operated capsule machine appeared. Sora discarded one card and a coin appeared. The coin then was promptly inserted into the machine. The machine spat out a capsule which revealed it to be fluffal bear. Sora smiled, "I special summon my bear!" The pink winged stuffed bear appeared on the field. "Now I activate my spell card polymerization! I fuse it with edge imp Scissors to create, Frightfur Tiger!" A green stuffed tiger appeared, before it was ripped in half by scissors. "I activate his effect! I can destroy cards up to the number of monsters used to fuse Tiger!"

Nazo pressed the facedown card on his duel disk screen activating it, "I activate fiendish chain! I negate the effect of your Frightfur tiger!" Dark chains shot up from the ground and wrapped around the monster.

Sora smirked before running up to a tree and grabbing a card from the gum drop leaf. "Action card, candy coat! My monster is not effected by your magic and trap cards!"

The tiger glowed for a second before releasing himself from the chains. He extended the scissors in his abdomen and sliced Nazo's monster and trap in half. They exploded in yellow shards.

Sora smiled, "Now Frightfur Tiger's next effect, it gains 300 attack for every Frightfur and Fluffal monster I control, so its ATK is now 2200!"

The monster roared as it powered up, Sora held out his hand, "I still have not normal summoned this turn, so now I play fluffal lion!" A yellow stuffed lion with wings appeared. "The attack of my tiger again increases to 2500! Now Attack!"

The Tiger monster bounded forward and raised a claw to slice at Nazo. Nazo dashed to the side and picked up a card held between two bricks on the road and held it out, "I activate action card, Avoid, and negate your attack!" Nazo slipped it into his duel disk. The claw came close before it was retracted and the tiger withdrew to the other side of the field.

Sora laughed, "One more time! Leo attack! The lion bounded at him. "While Leo attacks it gains 500 attack points," the lion's attack raised to 2100. Nazo took the blow and skidded to a halt a few feet away. His life points lowered to 1900. Sora shrugged, "I'll get you next time, I set one card and end my turn."

Nazo grinned, "My turn, Draw!"

Nazo 1900 Cards 3

Sora 4000 Cards 1

Nazo smirked, "I activate my field spell, Dragon's ravine!"

Shuzo, up in the control room, sputtered, "Field spell?"

Shuzo's reaction was not totally unwarranted. While a field spell was a valid tactic of the past, nowadays, action fields were the most popular, since of the action cards. Action cards spiced up the battle, and made it more exciting. The possibility of changing the duel's flow with just one action card was possible. When a duelist uses a field spell, only they would get the benefits of the field, but in turn, would lose the benefits of the action field, meaning, that all action cards were now for the opponent only. This is why nobody used field spell cards anymore.

Nazo inserted the card into his duel disk. His disk then shot a beam of light out and into the ground. _Duel disk 101789 has connected to solid vision machine, making appropriate changes._ Half the field was encompassed by yellow light before it transformed into a jagged rock face. Above them, dragons perched watching the duel below.

Sora blinked in confusion, "Eh? Is this what happens when you play a field spell?"

Nazo shook his head, "Sometimes it does, but sometimes the field spell appears over the player as a hologram. Moving on, I discard one card to get one level 4 or lower Dragunity monster to my hand."

Nazo slotted a card into his duel disk, and his deck spat out a card which he took. "I got Dragunity Dux, and I will play him!"

The monster sprung to the field once again. "I equip phalanx and then special summon him," soon after the small dragon was on the field once again. "Once again I synchro summon Vajrayana, but this time I equip aklys!"

The same red dragon appeared, but this time wielding a red lance as well. "I activate my final card in my hand! Dragunity Divine Lance! While equipped it gives the monster that it is equipped to a boost in Attack equal to its Level x 100." Vajrayana was surrounded by a blue light and its attack points increased to 2500

"Now the next effect of lance, I can equip a dragon tuner from my deck to the monster, and I choose Dragunity Brandistock." A small claw appeared on Vajrayana's arm. "This allows Vajrayana to attack twice during the battle phase."

Sora clapped, "Well done, but by my calculations, you won't win this turn."

Nazo smiled, "I can always try. Now I activate Vajrayana's effect! I can get rid of one equip spell card equipped to him, and then I can double his attack! The warrior threw the lance up in the air as if to throw it away, but the lance instead changed direction and pierced Sora's face down.

"When Aklys is sent to the grave while equipped to a monster, I can destroy one card on the field, and now since its attack was 2500, it is now 5000"

The monster let out a roar as its attack soared upward. Sora took a step back then turned to furiously search for an action card.

Nazo held out his hand, "Vajrayana attack Fluffal Leo!" The dragon knight charged forward and impaled the small stuffed lion inflicting 3400 points of damage. Sora was thrown back and crashed through a gingerbread house.

Nazo did not stop, "Vajrayana, attack again! Your monster has been weakened and now it only has 2200 attack!" The knight surged forward.

"Action Card, Avoid!"

The frightfur monster dodged just in time and the spear crashed down next to it. Nazo sighed, "I end my turn, and since the turn is over, Vajrayana goes back down to 2500."

Sora came out of the house breathing hard, "Whew, that was a close one… My turn, draw!"

Nazo 1900 Cards: 0

Sora 600 Cards: 2

Sora looked over his hand, "I play Edge Imp frightfake." A grotesque monster with many sewn up part appeared. "This monster is treated as a Frightfur monster while on field, and in grave. So my tiger gains 300 more attack!" The monster once again rose to 2500.

Sora pointed at Vajrayana, "I attack your dragon knight with my Tiger!" The monster ran forward and collided with the dragon, making both explode.

"Now Frightfake attacks directly." The hideous monster hit Nazo dropping him to 600 lp.

Sora nodded in satisfaction, "I set one card and end my turn."

Nazo frowned and drew.

Nazo 600 Cards: 1

Sora 600 Cards: 0

Nazo glanced down at his card and shrugged, "I once again activate Dragon ravine, to which I discard one card to add a monster to my hand."

Nazo slotted his card to the grave and grabbed a new card from deck.

"I summon out Dragunity Legionnaire."

A man with a green feathered costume appeared.

"When summoned, Legionnaire gets to equip one level 3 or lower dragon-type "Dragunity" to himself and I choose Aklys."

The familiar red lance appeared in Legionnaire's hand. "Now I activate his other effect, by sending one equip card to grave, I can destroy one monster on the field. Also since Aklys is headed to the grave while it was equipped to the monster, I will destroy your set card as well."

Legionnaire took aim and threw the lance straight at Edge Imp frightfake, causing it to shatter. The lance continued and pierced Sora's facedown making it fizzle out of view.

Nazo grinned, "Legionnaire attack!" The feathered warrior dashed at Sora with its fist pulled back.

Sora looked around, but not an action card was in sight. He took the blow and skidded back while his life points dropped to zero. A sign came up and flashed a "Nazo wins" sign above their heads.

As the field flashed and faded around them, Nazo walked up and held out his hand, "Nice duel! You almost had me there!"

Sora smiled and shook it, "Yeah, it was fun, definitely!"

Nazo frowned, "I have a question though, why didn't you use the action card by your feet when I attacked with Legionnaire?"

Sora looked surprised, "Eh? There was one there?…. Whoops my bad!"

The boy laughed and walked out of the dueling arena leaving Nazo to his own thoughts.

Nazo scratched his head, _"I thought he knew about it, it seemed he put his foot directly on it as if to use it for later… Huh, guess it really was just my imagination."_

Nazo walked out of the arena and was met by Ayu, Tatsuya, and Futoshi, all exclaiming about how fun the duel was.

Nazo thanked them all before he heard a shout of "HOT BLOODED" that caused him to look up to find Shuzo running at him.

The teacher grabbed Nazo by the shoulders, "That was an impressive duel! Who knew that you would favor a field spell over the action field! And those Synchro summons!"

As the teacher ranted on, Nazo could only smile and nod. In the back of his mind, he pondered what he had gotten himself into. The door opened revealing a boy and a girl. The girl had pink hair and odd hair ordainments. The boy however was fairly obvious, it was Sakaki Yuya. The girl walked up to the two of them, "Dad, who is this?"

Shuzo spun Nazo around and pushed him forward, "This is our new applicant, go on introduce yourself."

Nazo caught himself and stood up straight before extending his hand, "Nice to meet you, my name is Nazo Ryukesoku, nice to make your acquaintance."

The girl gave him a smile, "Nice to meet you, Nazo, my name is Yuzu Hiragi. Nice to meet you." They shook hands.

Sakaki Yuya stepped forward with his hand outstretched, "The name is…"

Nazo laughed and shook his hand, "I think everyone knows your name Sakaki, nice to finally meet the man who changed dueling as we know it."

Yuya laughed while scratching the back of his head, "I wouldn't go that far… Dueling is just as similar as it was before, besides only I can pendulum summon, so there is nothing really different, only if you are versing me."

Nazo shook his head, "That isn't true at all. While everything is fundamentally the same, you have made a new summoning method for the world to see, you're the pioneer on this brand new forefront. Everyone is excited to see how this new style will evolve."

Yuya laughed, "Well when you put it that way I guess it really is a big deal." He would have said more if not for the paper fan that hit him across the head causing him to stop and rub his head.

Yuzu scowled, "Don't get a big head just because you got a bit of flattery, it still took you near 300 tries to finally understand how pendulum summoning worked. If you had known how to do it right the first time, we would have gotten so many more applicants."

Yuya sighed and sat on the ground rubbing his head, "you didn't have to hit so hard…"

Nazo overlooked the scene with slight confusion, but attributed their behavior to them being close. Since Nazo had come late in the afternoon. They could only give him an introductory course on what they did there. There were many interesting things. One was to help train you to get action cards; others focus on your agility and athletic abilities like running outside or doing parkour. One of the pieces of equipment was a large deck holder that seemed to hold over 1000 cards just for the purpose of drawing. There were lessons too. There were ruling classes, dueling theory classes, and even classes on what should be in your extra deck. As Sora mentioned, it was not as structural as LDS, but with its freeform environment, it was a lot more fun. As the day wore down, Nazo said goodbye to his new friends and promised to come tomorrow. As Nazo walked into his household, he was greeted by his mother and father. After dinner, his father called him over and talked to him about his duel disk.

"Nazo, your duel disk is unique in only one aspect. It can change the field partially to whatever field spell you play. This can be advantageous in respect to all action cards are eliminated in the surrounding area. You many not move out of the area specified by your field spell, though this should not be any concern to you, since you cannot use action cards. If your field spell is destroyed, the area reverts back to normal, and you may use action cards once again. Remember this when you use this duel disk."

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "So how is mine unique? Some duel disks do that already."

His father chuckled slightly before explaining more, "It really isn't a unique feature per say, but your duel disk has permission to affect all duel fields. There is a registration process for allowing duel disks to affect the action field. Not everyone does this process because they find it tedious, and of no use, since they do not play field spells. Your disk had to be registered and accepted by the Leo Corporation. Use it wisely."

Nazo smiled, "Thanks dad, I'll treasure it."

His father nodded before sending him to bed.

-§-

Well this is the first chapter. While making an OC that could pendulum summon would be a blast and all. I realize that would be another typical run of the mill OC. Instead, I thought that I would focus on a less appealing aspect of action duels, field spells. Now, I know that action duels can only happen on action FIELDS and therefore, like speed world, the field spell zone is already taken up. I decided that in this alternate universe, it wouldn't work like that, and instead there would be a hidden duality within the system, you can use a field spell, but lose the action cards, so everyone chooses not to use a field spell rather than cannot use one.

I will make a note that Yuzu does in fact have a field spell card, the sanctuary in the sky. However she never uses it and it is only seen when her deck is scattered.

Nazo's last name is a play on words. Ryukesoku can be split into Ryuu and ketsusoku meaning Dragon and unity respectively. The word "Dragunity" is derived from these two words, and it is also the deck he plays. As for his first name, it is a direct translation to "unknown."

All monster names will be the English Version, and have the real life effects rather than the anime effects. The only cards that I can think that will keep their anime effects will be Timegazer, Stargazer and XYZ rebellion Dragon. The two Pendulum monsters will be able to be played whenever, but in turn can only negate one trap and magic each per battle phase. Rebellion Dragon can use its effect twice, but it only affects monsters that are level 5 or higher.

I hope you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed it leave a review. If you disliked it, tell me how I could do better. If card count or rulings were off, give a review or shoot me a PM.


	2. One for All, All for One

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

Nazo was excited. It would be his first official day that the You Show Duel school. When he arrived, the three children were seated on the couch looking over a dueling magazine. When Nazo walked in, Tatsuya looked up, "Ah! Welcome back Nazo!"

Nazo waved to them and leaned over to get a look at the article they were focusing on. It was an article on the newest effect, fusion, synchro, and XYZ monsters that had recently come into print.

Nazo blinked, "Do any of you use Fusion, synchro, or XYZ monsters?" The three shook their heads.

Futoshi responded, "Just seeing the new monsters gives me shivers though."

Ayu nodded, "Yeah! It even says there is an XYZ monster that has already been released to the public, but hasn't been seen yet."

Nazo frowned, and turned the article around to read it himself. Sure enough, at the bottom of the article was a message stating that there was a XYZ monster that had been printed once last month, but had not seen official play yet.

Nazo sighed, "Seems like an interesting monster if they only printed one of it, wonder why it hasn't been played yet…"

Tatsuya shrugged, "If it was in the possession a pro, it probably would have been used by now, so I guess someone is waiting to reveal it, like during the Miami championships!"

Nazo opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the door opening and Yuya, Sora, and Yuzu rushing in.

Yuya had three popsicles in hand while Yuzu carried a bag full of them.

"Yuya! Put those in the freezer before they melt! They are for after our workout today!"

After the popsicles were put away the actual schooling began. There was a rulings class that quizzed the group on whether or not the effect of a monster was effective or not. There was a session that tested the physical endurance by making them run 5 kilometers, the children around half that distance. There was a parkour exercise in which Nazo had difficulty in. _"Guess studying more than physical activity is taking its toll… need to go out more."_

All in all the sessions were fun, and helped the group as a whole improve. At the very end the group rested on the couch while eating multi-colored popsicles.

Yuya spoke up as he bit into his green one, "Hey, Nazo, are you joining the Miami Championships?"

Nazo looked up from his purple popsicle, "I didn't really plan on it, you can only join if you are part of a duel school, and since I was more focused on my studies rather than dueling, I never knew the real "requirements" for that event, I always watched it on TV, but I never really planned on joining it ever in my life."

Tatsuya decided to fill Nazo in, "To enter the Miami Championships, you either need to have dueled fifty times in a year with a duel rating of 60% or greater or you need to win 6 consecutive duels. "

Nazo blinked, "I see, well then, wonder what rating I have." He reached down and fiddled with his duel disk, until it showed his wins and losses.

Nazo frowned, "Well this is what I get for joining a duel school late… I only have around 28 matches this year…"

The group cringed at Nazo's report. Nazo held up a hand, "But, according to this, the last two duels I have played were wins, so if I wanted to join, I would only need 4 more duels to enter.

Yuzu stood up and clenched her fist, "well we can still try and get you in the Championships! I will duel you!"

Nazo blinked at her for a while until he smiled, "Sure, let's do this."

The two walked into the duel arena. Shuzo went to run to the solid vision system, but was stopped by Yuzu, "not every duel will be an action duel, let's duel without one."

Yuzu and Nazo faced each other, "DUEL"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 5

Yuzu 4000 Cards: 5

Nazo smirked, "Well then, Ladies first?"

Yuzu smiled, "What a gentleman, I play 1st movement solo. This allows me to summon out one melodious monster, so I play Canon the Melodious Diva!"

A woman with blue hair with a blue and purple suit and an opera mask appeared on the field.

"Now Since I control a Melodious monster, I can special summon Sonata the Melodious Diva!"

Another songstress appeared. "Now I sacrifice both my monsters to play Mozarta the Melodious Maestra!"

A butterflied winged woman in a red dress descended to the field. "Now I activate the effect of Mozarta! Allowing me to special summon one light fairy monster to the field from my hand. I summon out Aria the Melodious Diva! "

The monster appeared in a flash of light. "Since this card was special summoned, my Melodious monsters cannot be targeted by card effects nor destroyed by battle! Turn end!"

Nazo nodded, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 6

Yuzu 4000 Cards: 0

Nazo frowned as he thought, _"they can't be targeted by card effects nor be destroyed by battle? That's insane! All I can do for now is to summon something with a stronger attack and inflict damage gradually."_

Nazo held out a card, "I play the field spell, Dragon ravine!" The area around them shifted until they were at the bottom of a valley with dragons flying high above. "I discard one card to get one Dragunity monster to my hand. So I discard Phalanx to get dux to hand!" Nazo ditched one card and retrieved the card from his deck.

"Now I play dux and activate his effect! I equip the phalanx in grave to him!" The eagle winged figure was equipped with the all familiar knife. "Now I summon out Phalanx to the field." The armored dragon appeared.

"Now I will synchro climb to a level 8!"

Ayu tilted her head in question, "Synchro climb?"

Yuzu also frowned at Nazo's statement, "Synchro what?"

Nazo explained, "Synchro climbing is a term used by Dragunity users. When we synchro summon a Vajrayana then synchro again for a level 8, this is called synchro climbing.

Nazo summoned out Vajrayana then summoned out Scrap Dragon, "See?"

Yuzu nodded her head. Nazo held out his hand, "I attack Aria with Scrap Dragon! Scrap Breath!"

The dragon breathed in before releasing a scrap infused blast that cut through Aria damaging Yuzu. "I now set one card and end my turn."

Yuzu smiled and drew.

Nazo 4000 Cards: 4

Yuzu 2800 Cards: 1

Yuzu nodded, "I special summon out another Sonata the Melodious Diva in defense position! Since this card was special summoned, all fairy type monsters gain 500 attack!"

Nazo took a step back, "What!?"

Yuzu clenched her fist, "Mozarta attack Scrap Dragon!"

The woman swung her baton and a musical strip flowed at Scrap Dragon. Nazo activated his face down, "I activate Negate Attack! I negate the attack and end the battle phase!"

Yuzu smirked, "I'll get you next turn, I turn my aria to defense and end my turn."

Nazo frowned, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 5

Yuzu 2800 Cards: 0

"I activate the effect of Dragon Ravine, I discard tuner monster, Aklys to grave to get Dragunity Dux to hand! Now I play Dux and synchro up to Vajrayana! I equip Vajrayana with Phalanx!"

The red dragon appeared and the purple dagger flashed into vision in the knight's hand. Now I activate Vajrayana's effect! I can send Phalanx to grave to double his attack!" The knight tossed the dagger away to boost his attack to 3800. "Now Vajrayana attack Mozarta!"

The dragon raced forward and struck Mozarta, dealing 700 points of damage, but the fairy did not fall.

Nazo sighed, "I set one card and end my turn."

Yuzu smiled, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 3

Yuzu 2100 Cards: 1

Yuzu raised the card in the air, "I activate Mozarta's effect allowing me to special summon out Elegy the Melodious Diva. She increases every fairy monster by 300 points, as well as it does not allow any of my monsters to be destroyed by card effects." The monster gracefully appeared next to its companions.

Futoshi yelled from the sidelines, "Yuzu's lock is complete! It's giving me shivers!"

Yuya nodded, "Nazo is going to have a tough time with this."

Yuzu pointed forward, "I switch my Aria back to attack mode. Mozarta will attack Scrap dragon!" The red songstress once again waved her baton and a barrage of notes hit Scrap Dragon causing an explosion and 600 points of damage. When the smoke cleared a white dragon sat in its place.

Nazo smiled, "I activated Shadow Impulse, which allows me to summon out another Synchro monster with the same level and type as the destroyed one, but it must have a different name. I summoned out Stardust Spark Dragon"

"I'm not done," shouted Yuzu as she pointed at Vajrayana, "Elegy attack Vajrayana!"

The attack struck true and the monster was destroyed, leaving Nazo with 800 life points less than before.

Yuzu smiled, "Turn end."

Nazo breathed deeply then drew his card, "Draw!"

Nazo 2100 Cards: 4

Yuzu 2100: Cards 0

Nazo's eyes widened, _"Finally…"_

Nazo raised his arm, "I once again activate Dragon Ravine, by discarding one card, I send Dragunity Arma Leyvaten to the grave. Nazo took the card from the deck and put it in the grave. Now I summon out Dragunity Legionnaire and equip it with Phalanx. The monster appeared with dagger in hand.

"Now I banish Legionnaire to special summon out Leyvaten from grave." Legionnaire faded from existence and in a burst of light, Leyvaten took his place. "I equip Leyvaten with Phalanx from the grave, and the final card in my hand, Dragunity Divine Lance!" A lance appeared next to Leyvaten along with a dagger. The dragon warrior grabbed both. "I activate the effect of the lance, which allows me to equip a dragon tuner to Leyvaten, and I choose brandistock, this allows him to attack twice". A small claw appeared on Leyvaten's arm.

"With the other effect of the lance, Leyvaten's attack is now 3400!" The dragon's was outlined in blue as the attack increased.

"Now for the finale! I attack Aria with Leyvaten!" The dragon warrior rushed forward and slammed the lance into Aria, inflicting 1000 points in damage. "I attack again!" Another 1000 points were shaved off as the dragon used the claw on its wrist.

"Finally, Stardust Spark Dragon! Attack! Sonic Spark!" The dragon breathed in and loosed a burst at Aria inflicting the final 100 points of damage to Yuzu for the game.

As the projections faded, Nazo walked up and shook hands with Yuzu, "That was a great duel… I almost was out of options after you summoned Sonata."

Yuzu smiled, "I thought I had you there, but that lance saved you."

Nazo laughed, "It sure did, I will not deny that one."

The pair walked back to the lounge and were greeted by the others. What Nazo did not expect was to see the famous announcer/ duelist manager Nico Smiley. The man turned and greeted Nazo, "Ah that was a splendid duel you just had, tell me young man, are you entered into the Miami championships?"

Nazo scratched the back of his head, "As of now, I would need to win 3 more duels to do something like that…"

Yuya pounded his fist, "yeah, but Nico smiley is a manager extraordinaire! I bet he could find some opponents for you if you asked!"

Nazo held up his hands, "I don't want to be a burden though…"

Nico's grin got wider as he waved off Nazo's comment, "A friend of Yuya's is a friend of mine, I can arrange a few duels if you would like."

Nazo scratched his cheek nervously, then smiled, "You know what? I will take you up on that offer, if want to go pro, then this would be the first step."

Yuya encouragingly patted him on the back, "That's the spirit! Even if you fail, you know that you at least attempted it, which is better that nothing."

Nazo nodded, "Yeah, your right."

Nico Smiley clapped his hands together, "Excellent, well then, I will arrange some duels, I hope you show some promising results you three."

Nazo, Yuya, and Sora, all nodded and said, "You can count on it."

After Nico Smiley exited, Nazo turned to Yuya, "I don't suppose you would be willing to show me Pendulum summoning would you?"

Yuya smiled, "Sure I don't see any reason not to. "

-§-

"Ah, so that is why you use Performapal Swordfish."

Yuya nodded, "Attack lowering is an underrated aspect in dueling, Action cards make the effect a bit more common, but nobody really expects their attack to be altered."

Nazo scratched his chin, "I don't know about that, usually I increase my attack with my own effects."

After Yuya had shown Nazo pendulum summoning, Yuzu had asked the two to go buy something for her for the following day, both, seeing that they had nothing better to do, decided to walk and talk. The pair was walking back to You Show Duel School, with the supplies that Yuzu had asked for.

"Well, well, if it isn't Yuya Sakaki."

The pair stopped and looked to see who had spoken. When the pair saw who had spoken, Yuya frowned and muttered, "you two…"

Nazo raised an eyebrow and asked, "Who are they?"

Yuya sighed, "Sawatari Shingo's friends…"

Nazo scratched the back of his head, "Shingo? Shingo… Ah! The one that took your Pendulum Cards."

Ootomo grunted, "We're here to take them back! Not only did you embarrass Shingo, you also injured him in that duel."

Yuya clenched his fist, "You know that wasn't me!"

Yamabe pointed at Yuya, "Shut up, now hand over those cards!"

Nazo took a step forward, "I don't think so, if you're so desperate," Nazo activated his duel disk, "You're going to have to go through me first."

Yamabe smirked and activated his duel disk, "You think you can beat and LDS member? You're mistaken."

Yuya took a step forward and activated his own duel disk, "He is not fighting alone! We're friends and allies at the same duel school."

Ootomo activated his own duel disk, "Guess this settles it, whoever wins keeps the Pendulum Cards."

Nazo's duel disk chimed out, "4 duel disks confirmed in activation, Duelists Nazo and Yuya are paired together against duelists Ootomo and Yamabe, Battle royal Style."

The four shouted, "DUEL!"

Yuya 4000 Cards: 5

Nazo 4000 Cards: 5

Ootomo 4000 Cards: 5

Yamabe 4000 Cards: 5

Ootomo called out, "I take the first turn! I summon out Alien warrior in attack mode." An odd looking creature with large claws appeared. "I activate the continuous spell card 'Code A Ancient Ruins' and set two cards and end my turn!"

Nazo nodded at Yuya who nodded back.

Yuya glanced down and smiled, he took two cards from his hand, "I, using the scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the scale 8 Timegazer Magician, set my scale!"

Two pillars of light erupted on either side of Yuya and the two aforementioned magicians rose up. A large 1 and 8 floated beneath each respective magician and a pendulum started to swing innocently between them.

"Now I can simultaneously summon monsters levels 2 to 7! Swing, Pendulum of Souls! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Come forth my faithful monsters!'

Two streaks of light descended downward and revealed themselves to be Performapal Whip Snake, and Odd-eyes Pendulum Dragon.

Yuya smiled, "I set one card down and I end my turn!"

Yamabe scowled, "You're Pendulum Summon doesn't scare us! I play the continuous spell card Six Samurai United, then I play Six Samurai Zanji."

An orange armored samurai appeared on the field.

"Since I control a Six Samurai monster, I can special summon out Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan, as well as Grandmaster of the Six Samurai!"

A samurai with black armor appeared as well as an old man with a sword.

"I can send my Six Samurai United to grave to draw 2 cards!" He quickly drew 2 cards.

"I set one card and end my turn!"

Nazo smirked, "My turn! I activate Dragon Ravine!" The all too familiar ravine formed around them.

"I activate Cards of Consonance! I discard my tuner monster Dragunity Phalanx to draw 2 cards," Nazo swiftly added two cards to his hand, "and now I activate Dragon Ravine, which allows me to discard Dragunity Brandistock to grave to get Dragunity Dux to hand. I play Dragunity Dux! I equip Phalanx to him, then special summon it out!"

The eagle clothed man appeared and a few moments later so did the armored dragon.

Nazo smirked, "Now I synchro climb to Level 8! Come forth, Stardust Spark Dragon!" A faded image of Vajrayana was seen before Stardust took the field.

Nazo glanced at Zanji _"That card is going to be annoying…"_

Nazo sighed, "I set 2 cards, turn..."

Ootomo smirked, "I activate my face down! A cell Scatter Shot! I destroy one alien monster on my side of the field and redistribute as many A-counters on face up monsters as levels that it has! I destroy my level 4 alien warrior!" The alien burst apart with chunks flying everywhere. Two clumps landed on Stardust, while the other 2 clumps landed on Odd-eyes pendulum Dragon. The clumps formed into what looked to be large purple tumors.

"Now my Ruins get one counter!" An A counter appeared on the card.

Nazo narrowed his eyes, "This isn't good, Turn end."

Yuya 4000 Cards: 0

Nazo 4000 Cards: 1

Ootomo 4000 Cards: 1

Yamabe 4000 Cards: 2

Ootomo smirked, "Everything is in its place! Draw! I play Alien Ammonite! Now I can special summon one alien monster back to my field, and I choose alien warrior!" The two monsters appeared.

"Now I tune my Alien Ammonite with my alien warrior! _After years of turmoil a king is born! Warp the minds of all those who lay eyes upon you! Come forth Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar_!"

A hideous beast descended to the field.

Ootomo smiled, "I activate his first effect! I can send any number of face up spell and trap cards back to their owner's hand, and distribute A-counters according to how many I sent. I send back your Stargazer Magician, Timegazer Magician, and Dragon Ravine. Nazo and Yuya took back the cards into their hands. Gol'gar spat out three counters and all three landed on Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.

"I activate the effect of Code A Ancient Ruins! I remove two A-counters from Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to summon back Alien Warrior!"

The two blobs left the dual eye colored dragon and Alien Warrior reappeared on the field.

"Now I activate Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar effect! I can remove 2 counters form anywhere on the field to destroy one card on the field! I remove the two on Stardust Spark dragon to destroy it!"

The two counters on Stardust Spark Dragon detonated causing a cloud of dust.

Ootomo laughed, "You're finished! You never had a chance to begin with! There is no way you can take an LDS student!"

Nazo rolled his eyes, "Check again."

The smoke had cleared and the white dragon stood proudly. Ootomo was shocked.

"What? How, that's impossible."

Nazo scoffed, "Guess they don't teach you too well at LDS, the effect of Stardust Spark allows me to, once per turn, during either player's turn, target one face up card on the field. If that card would be destroyed by battle or by a card effect, once, its destruction is negated."

Ootomo ground his teeth in frustration, "you…. YOU! It doesn't matter! I can still attack! Gol'gar attack Stardust Spark Dragon!"

Yuya laughed, "Nazo! Let me help you out there! I activate my trap card, Wall of Disruption! When a monster attacks, all attack position monsters on their side of the field lose 800 attack points for every monster they control! Your monster goes down to 1000 attack!"

A transparent wall slammed into the attacking Gol'gar and Alien Warrior lowering their attack. Stardust blocked the weakened monster and shoved it back, before firing a burst, destroying it and inflicting 1500 points of damage.

Nazo nodded at Yuya, "Thanks for the help!"

Ootomo clenched his fist, "I…. I set one card, Turn end!"

Yuya smiled, "My turn! Draw! I reset my scale of both Stargazer and Timegazer!" Both monsters rose back to their respective positions. "Now Whip snake will attack your monster!" The purple snake dashed forward and destroyed the monster dealing 1500 points of damage to Ootomo.

Ootomo recovered, "Your snake now has 2 alien counters attacked to it! Plus, my ruins now have 1 more counter!"

Yuya smiled, "It doesn't matter! Odd-eye Pendulum Dragon! Attack Ootomo Directly!"

Ootomo laughed, "I activate my face down! Brainwashing Beam! I can choose one monster on the field with A-counters on it and take control of it, I choose your Odd-eye Pendulum Dragon. Now your precious monster is MINE!"

Yuya shook his head and raised his hand, "O Chronomacy Magician who watches over Space-time itself! Protect me with your ethereal powers! Inverse gearwise!"

Timegazer magician held its arm while a transparent clock appeared, spinning backwards. The trap was forcefully reset on the field.

Ootomo tapped his duel disk, "Doesn't matter, I activate my spell card Mysterious triangle! I can destroy one monster on the field with an A-counter then summon out a level four Alien monster from my deck!

Yuya shouted, "It's useless! O Astromancy Magician who watches over Space-time itself! Seal my foes with your ethereal powers! Horoscope Divination!"

Stargazer magician spun his staff and a network of sparks was formed, forcing the magic card to be reset.

Ootomo backed up, "No… NO! This cannot be happening!"

Yuya smirked, "Odd-eyes Pendulum Dragon! Attack Directly with Spiral Strike Burst!" The dual eye colored dragon ran forward and jumped in the air, only to fire searing hot flames at its target; needless to say, Ootomo lost all his life points.

Nazo gave Yuya a thumbs up, "Nice job Yuya!"

Yuya nodded, "I set one card and end my turn!"

Yamabe scowled, "Shut up! Just because you beat one of us doesn't mean you will win this duel! Draw! I play Legendary Six Samurai-Kageki! This allows me to summon one more monster! I chose to summon, Kagemusha of the Six Samurai! I tune my level 2 Kagemusha with my level 3 Kageki, Synchro Summon! Legendary Six Samurai-Shien!

The red clad warrior descended to the field, as well as another Kizan appeared.

"I activate my final card, Gift of the Martyr! I sacrifice my Grandmaster to my Shien!" The old man disappeared in a burst of light which engulfed Shien, boosting its power.

"I attack your Performapal Whip Snake with my Kizan!" The snake was sliced in half by the sword of the black armored warrior.

Now I attack Odd-eyes Pendulum dragon with my Zanji!" The warrior ran up and sliced at Odd Eyes, but the sword did no damage, and Yamabe took 700 points. I activate Zanji's effect! I can negate his destruction by sacrificing one Six Samurai, I sacrifice Kizan!"

Nazo acted, "Yuya, let me pay back the help from earlier! I activate the effect of Stardust Spark! I negate the destruction of Odd-eyes!"

Yamabe grinned maniacally, "I knew you would waste your effect on your friend there! Now I am free to attack your dragon! Shien, Attack Stardust Spark Dragon!"

Yuya interrupted him, "You think I will allow that? I activate my face down! Fiendish Chain!"

Yamabe laughed, "I activate Shien's effect! I negate the activation of Fiendish Chain and destroy it!"

Shien raised his hand which was glowing. The image of the card became deformed before shattering. Shien then continued on and slashed the white dragon, destroying it, kicking up a cloud of dust and inflicting 2100 points of damage to Nazo.

Yamabe laughed, "This is the power of LDS! You cannot possibly beat us!"

Yuya looked down, "Sorry Nazo, I couldn't stop that attack…"

Nazo shook his head, "No, you did absolutely fine, you made him use his effect, and that was enough. I activate my own face down, Shadow Impulse!"

Yamabe snapped back to reality at Nazo's words.

Nazo continued, "Since a synchro monster was destroyed, I can summon another one from my extra deck that is the same level and type, but a different name, I summon out, Void Ogre Dragon!"

A grand light exploded in front of Nazo, and out of it came a Red dragon with vicious fangs and claws. Boasting 3000 attack points, it was not a power to be trifled with.

Yamabe's eyes widened, "So what! You got one dragon! I can still defeat you! You can't use your Dragon Ravine, I will just negate it!"

Nazo smiled, "Possibly, how about you end your turn and we find out?"

Yamabe clenched his teeth, "Don't you mock me! Turn end!"

Nazo smirked, "Draw! I set one card face down! I also play Tuner monster, Dragunity Aklys!"

A face down came into view as well as a red small dragon.

"Synchro Summon! _I call upon the beast which destroys all who dare oppose it, with its three heads it will annihilate anything in its path, Come forth, Trident Dragion_!"

The two monsters combined to form a large orange dragon with three massive heads and large wings.

"I activate Trident Dragion's effect, I can destroy up to two cards on my side of the field when I summon him, and for this turn, he gains one additional attack for each card destroyed by this effect. I destroy both my face downs."

Trident Dragion lowered two of its heads and crushed one card each in its jaws.

"I now attack Zanji with Delta Trident Burst."

The dragon gathered energy in one of its heads, and fired it, completely annihilating the orange warrior.

"Now I attack Shi-en."

The result was the same as the last, and soon the red clad warrior as gone.

"Final attack, Direct attack."

The dragon seemed to grin before gathering energy in the middle head, and then released it on Yamabe.

The boy covered his face and screamed as his life points reached zero.

As the holograms faded, Yuya and Nazo walked up to each other and shared a high-five.

Nazo smiled, "Nice plays there Yuya! I can definitely see where you are coming from with that attack decreasing idea, especially with that 'Wall of Disruption.' He didn't even see it coming."

Yuya shot him a grin, "You're not too shabby yourself! That final attack was amazing!"

The two glanced over at the LDS thugs that were sitting on the ground licking their wounds.

Nazo shrugged, "Let's get out of here, I think Yuzu might be a bit mad that we are late."

Yuya laughed, "Don't worry; She will forgive us when we tell her LDS slowed us down."

The two walked away talking about what activities they would have the next day. Unbeknownst to them, a figure had heard what they had said.

Ootomo grunted, "Dang it! How did we lose to them! We are LDS!"

"LDS you say? Then let's duel."

The two looked up to find a boy with a red mask, shades, and blue trench coat on. The two LDS students looked at him with confusion.

The boy activated his duel disk, "I play…

-§-

Well that is the second chapter. I will point out that obviously the decks for Ootomo and Yamabe were given to them by me, since they do not have a deck in the anime. Yuya does not have, if he does then is has not been seen, Fiendish chain, but he was given it since it is a pretty standard card. He will be using it in the future as well.

This chapter was initially supposed to be only the duel between Yuzu and Nazo, but unfortunately that did not take as many words as I hoped, so I decided to do two duels in on chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.


	3. Shoot Out

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

Nazo had been slightly disappointed this morning when he had checked his duel disk. Even though he had won a double duel yesterday, the disk only registered it as 1 win instead of 2. He would have to ask Shuzo, Yuzu, Yuya, or Tatsuya why that was.

As he got dressed in his usual attire, he slowly got excited for the day ahead. Yuzu had promised something fun with Yuya's and Nazo's purchase from the day prior. When Nazo had entered the You Show Duel School building, the air was buzzing with excitement. The three kids were bouncing with excitement from what Yuzu had said yesterday. There was also a very large person in the school as well. Clothed in mostly white, and with clogs as shoes, he definitely looked out of place. When Nazo had entered, he had turned and had started at Nazo before giving him a hardy pat on the back. This is how he had met Noboru Gongenzaka of the steadfast style. Gongenzaka had heard about Nazo and was surprised to see that there was someone else that did not utilize Action cards to their fullest ability. Nazo had told him that was not technically true, it was because of his field spell.

Gongenzaka nodded, "I see, a field spell does indeed stop the usage of Action cards."

Nazo scratched his head, "But why don't you use a field spell? You don't search for action cards anyway, so just use a field spell and utilize it to your advantage."

Gongenzaka shook his head, "I cannot afford a field spell in my arsenal, if it were to ever reach the graveyard, it would prove fatal for my deck."

Nazo did not know how to comment to that, before he could continue the conversation however, the three younger duelists ran up to him to greet him.

"Nazo! Are you ready for today?" asked Ayu as she came up to him.

Nazo smiled, "I sure am, but I wonder how those plastic things are going to be used…"

Yuya came in from the dueling arena, "Oh good! You're here, everyone come to the dueling arena."

The group walked in and found Sora and Yuzu talking. The plastic kits that Yuya and Nazo had gotten the day before were now fashioned into plastic guns which were on the ground.

Yuzu waved at everyone as they entered, "Everyone pick up a gun, then we can start."

Nazo raised an eyebrow and picked up a plastic gun. While it had a trigger, it had no clip or ammo.

Yuzu cleared her throat to explain, "These guns are made by Leo Corporation to help duelists get better at Action duels. This game is called Target Practice. There is a special action field that is specific for these guns called 'Firing Range.' There are only 3 action cards that appear in this duel field, Reload, Avoid, and Explosion. Reload will generate a clip for you so you can load and reload your gun. A clip fires something akin to a paintball bullet. If you are hit once you are out. The Avoid card is similar to the one in action duels, but this one makes all bullets in the next 2 seconds get repelled by an invisible barrier. The final one is Explosion, which will generate a toy grenade that will explode in 5 seconds, so use it wisely.

Other than that all the rules are the same for an action duel. You may only hold one action card at a time. This entire activity helps duelists with their stamina, acrobatic ability, decision making, and awareness. A duelist needs to know the action cards around him, know where his opponent is relative to him/herself, and know their own limits. Be careful, each reload gives your gun 10 shots, and your gun is single fire. After the action field is set up, you get 5 minutes to run around until the match starts. You can only use the card Reload in this 5 minute prep time. To activate your action cards, slide them in your duel disk." All the participants equipped their duel disk, but did not generate their monster zones.

Yuzu looked up at her father who was with Gongenzaka in the solid vision system room, "We're ready!"

Shuzo nodded, "Action Field on! Firing Range!"

The field gradually appeared, walls, barriers, mirrors, slopes, steps, multiple layers, and more were everywhere. There were partially destroyed buildings and even natural elements like trees and bushes. It was a fantastic area with so many things that one could not see it all with just one look.

The participants looked at each other, and then yelled, "ACTION DUEL!"

The cards scattered about and they all ran in a separate direction. Nazo ran up a slope to get a better vantage point of the field. He noticed an action card and grabbed it. Fortunately it was a reload and he slotted it into his duel disk. A magazine popped up in front of him, prompting him to grab it. Nazo loaded it into the gun and kept running. He noticed Sora running on a tier below him, before he ran up a wall to grab an action card. Nazo shook his head, _"That kid has some serious skill."_

Nazo marked a few locations on his mental map of action cards he spotted. There was no guarantee that they would be there the next time he came here, but it was better than doing nothing. He did snatch up an Avoid card for safety. Soon after, the buzzer sounded and the match began. Nazo sprinted around trying to find someone to shoot at, when he heard a familiar voice, "This match is giving me the shivers!"

Nazo poked his head around the wall and fired in the direction of the voice. Coincidently, he heard 5 other guns shoot at around the same time. The resounding "Arrgh!" almost made him laugh, _"Well I guess Futoshi is down."_

Nazo sprinted up a slope to find Ayu ahead of him turning a corner. He would feel bad shooting her, but he did not want to risk getting screwed over when the time came. He dashed around the corner only to find Tatsuya aiming his gun straight down the hallway, Nazo jumped back the way he came just barely dodging the shot. _"He saw me coming?"_

He turned around and started to run back across a bridge when he felt something whiz past him, He tuned to see Ayu taking aim, _"Where did she come from?"_

He turned back to see a smirking Futoshi taking aim as well, _"He faked getting hit?!"_

Nazo brandished his action card, "Action Card Avoid!" He slotted it into his duel disk just as the two fired. Not even a second later two splats on the ground told him his decision had save him his 'life.' He took aim and fired at Futoshi, hitting him in the shoulder. Immediately, a panel appeared in the air with Futoshi's face while in printed text told everyone Futoshi was eliminated. Nazo jumped off the bridge to the ground below and started to run underneath the bridge as cover. He ran past a building and jumped into a bush. He hoped the action card from before was still there, and his hope paid off. He grabbed the Explosion action card and headed through mirror maze. He spotted pink hair and blue orbs; it seemed Yuzu was in here as well. Nazo sprinted through the winding corridors until he came rounded the corner and took aim, firing 3 times. His aim has something to be desired because they all missed. She ran around a corner. Nazo frowned, but slotted in the explosion action card. The toy grenade appeared and he threw it in her direction. A resounding explosion and splattering sound as heard, but there was no confirmation sign, so Nazo assumed he missed or she had used an action card. He doubled back the way he came and exited the mirror maze.

As he ran to another spot where an action card could be, a sign popped up telling everyone Ayu had been eliminated. Nazo ran to a tree, and hopped up to grab an action card between the branches. It was another Avoid. He ran up some steps when he noticed a poorly concealed white school uniform tucked around a corner, it was Yuya's. Nazo smirked and ran towards it; he skidded around the corner shot twice only to stain an empty uniform blue. Realization dawned on him and he only had enough time to slot in the avoid card before shots rained down on him. Yuya and Yuzu stood on a higher plane both shooting.

"Teaming up is cheating you know!" yelled Nazo as he ran and shot two bullets at Yuya, Yuya leaned out of the way to dodge.

"There was nothing about it in the rules, so all is fair, besides, Tatsuya, Ayu, and Futoshi did that," stated Yuya as he took aim once again. Nazo ran behind cover and tried to catch his breath. He was down to two bullets and he needed a reload card. Another sign flashed up telling everyone Tatsuya was out of the game. Only the 4 junior youth participants remained. Nazo skidded around the corner and picked up an already predetermined action card, a reload. He refilled his ammo and kept charging ahead. "Where do you think you're going?"

A voice alerted him that Sora was behind him, He spun around an unloaded 3 rounds at Sora, but he dodged with relative ease. It became a back and forth, both parties firing and then retreating or dodging and countering. Grenades went off as the two clashed. Nazo was losing his breath. This kid was good. No normal young boy would have reaction times like this. The thing that scared him was the fact that Nazo was grabbing all the avoids and the explosion cards, while Sora only grabbed Reloads. As Nazo dashed down a slope, he spotted Yuzu and Yuya coming around a wall, _"Perfect, a distraction" _He called out, "Hey you two, take this! He fired the rest of his rounds at the two in a scattered manner. The two dodged and charged at him, only for them to all run when a toy grenade plopped down in the middle of them. Nazo hid behind a wall when the grenade exploded. No sign went off, unfortunately, so everyone was still in the game.

Nazo hurried along, he noticed a brown card on the ground, _"Perfect!"_ Unfortunately, one could only have so much luck; this time around it was an explosion card. Nazo sighed in disappointment, _"You can't win them all…"_ He hurried along till he spotted a patch of blue hair sneaking around a corner. He rushed quietly after it on peeked around it. Sora was quietly approaching Yuzu who was walking while looking around. Nazo grinned, _"Two birds with one stone"_ He inserted the action card once again getting a toy grenade. He turned the corner just as Sora shot Yuzu, Nazo threw the small device and hid around the corner. The device exploded and Nazo heard Sora groan in disappointment as the sign above them lit up with Sora's and Yuzu's faces. _"All that is left is Yuya. I can do this."_

Nazo ran up slopes and stairs to try and find the green and red haired boy. He grabbed a reload card on the way and refilled his ammo to ten. At the top floor he noticed Yuya looking over the edge trying to spot Nazo. Nazo crouched and tiptoed closer to him. At the very last second Nazo popped up, "Take this!" Nazo shot 5 bullets at him, there was no way that Yuya could…

Yuya smiled and activated his monster card zone. The bullets impacted it and colored the disk orange. Yuya promptly raised his gun arm and fired twice hitting Nazo.

Nazo just stared, shocked at the outcome. Yuya walked up to him and said, "Hehe, sorry about that… I realized that I use the duel disk as a shield before we started… but I forgot to mention it. Either way, you did really well, and that is something to be happy about."

Nazo blinked, and then just started laughing, out of all the crazy stuff people did in this game; Yuya really was one of a kind.

As the action field dissipated, as well as the stains on everyone, Nazo and Yuya shared a high five and a handshake signifying that it was indeed a fun game.

Back in the break room, Nazo was eating a popsicle while the others were talking about what they would be doing the rest of the day. While the gun fight had been long, it was only early afternoon, so they could still do things in the duel school. Nazo walked up to Shuzo and asked about the double dueling rules.

Shuzo nodded after hearing Nazo's concerns, "If you look at it like this, since both Yuya and you dueled, you each got one win, if it was just you, then you would have gotten two wins."

"Ah, I see," Nazo said as he sat down once again. He was about to flip open a magazine regarding the newest trap selection, when a voice called out.

"Nazo! Mr. Smiley is here to see you!"

Ayu's call made Nazo stand up again and go to the entrance way where Smiley was waiting. When Nazo appeared, Smiley spoke, "Nazo, good to see you, I have arranged a match for you set for tomorrow."

Nazo nodded, "Thank you, oh! I won a duel yesterday after you left, so you only need to find one match after this one, that is, if I win…."

Smiley patted him on the back, "I have great expectations of you Nazo, don't let me down. It is at the Overseas Duel School. Come there at noon tomorrow."

Nazo scratched the back of his head, "I will try not to disappoint you Smiley Sir."

Nico Smiley laughed before leaving, waving to Nazo as he exited. Nazo breathed out a sigh. He did not know why, but dealing with that man was exhausting. When he re-entered the break room, Yuya asked, "What's the news?"

Nazo gave a thumbs up, "I have a duel tomorrow. It is at the overseas duel school at noon."

Yuzu nodded, "I heard they had good duelists there, but nothing that you shouldn't be able to handle. We can all come and cheer you on."

Nazo nodded in thanks, "I would appreciate that. It is always better when you have someone rooting for you, especially if you are the away team."

Yuya nodded, "Yeah give it your best shot tomorrow, we-"

He was abruptly cut off when the door slammed open revealing an angry Sawatari Shingo and his scared underling, Kakimoto.

He pointed furiously at Nazo and Yuya, "You two, what have you done?"

Nazo and Yuya shared looks of confusion, "What?"

Shingo walked up and grabbed Yuya by the collar, "don't act dumb, because of you-!'

Kakimoto intervened, "Shingo, we can't talk about that!"

Shingo's scowl deepened, "Shut up! I know!" he threw Yuya to the ground, "Listen here Sakaki, I will get my revenge, mark my words."

Yuya coughed and Yuzu knelt down to see if he was alright. Nazo took a step forward, "What the hell are you talking about?"

Shingo locked his glare at Nazo, "You should stop acting like you are not part of it, you both know what is going on, if it wasn't for you, then they would still be here!"

Nazo's brow furrowed in confusion, "They? They who?"

Shingo clenched his fist, "You know who! If you keep acting like that I'm going to punch your lights out!"

Nazo grit his teeth, while he hated to admit it, he would have a hard time to fight. His body was not as athletic as other kids his age, at least the ones who participated in action duels regularly, and it would take a bit of training for him to get to their level. He had book smarts but that didn't help a lot in a duel... or a fight.

Fortunately, Shuzo had come back at this moment and intervened, "Hey! What are you doing?"

Shingo let out an agitated sound, "Tsk, remember this Sakaki, Ryukesoku, I will pay you back." With that, the two left the area. Yuzu helped Yuya to his feet while asking, "what was that about?"

Yuya shook his head, "I don't know."

Nazo clenched his fist, "Yuya, I have a favor to ask of you."

Yuya turned to him, "hmm?"

Nazo sighed, "I need to get better at action duels, I won't always be able to draw my field spell, and if that happens, I can't let my opponent get the better of me. Can you play me in another round of Target Practice?"

Yuya looked at him confused, "Why the change of heart?" Nazo stayed silent, looking at the ground. Yuya smiled, "you know what? It doesn't matter, if a friend needs my help, I will be willing to give it. Come on, let's do this… oh, but what about the rest of the activities today?"

The two turned to Shuzo who was look at them with determination. The older man walked over to Nazo and grabbed both his shoulders, "Nazo with your Hot-blooded determination, anything is possible, feel free to use the dueling room!"

Nazo smiled, "Thank you," he turned to both Yuya and Yuzu, you guys up for another round?"

Yuzu nodded, "yeah, we can all get some extra practice."

Sora smirked, "I will play as well, I need to get my revenge for last time."

The group of four nodded and walked back into the duel area. When the round started, Nazo started to run. He climbed walls, skidded down slopes, and made grabs at action cards he would usually consider out of his reach. He focused on the feeling of his body, and the feeling he had right then and there. The feeling that he knew he had to get better. Since it was just the four junior youth league duelists, they didn't hold back against anyone. The rounds were faster paced and much more intense than the first. He pushed on, and lost many, many times. At the end of the day, he was leaning against the wall, breathing and sweating heavily, while Yuzu, Sora, and Yuya all looked at him concerned.

Yuya scratched his head, "Maybe we shouldn't have done this… you are going to be sore tomorrow."

Nazo laughed between breaths, "It's fine…I need to get better and to do that I need to go to the limit every day. You guys have any recommendations on any stretches I can do?"

Yuzu and Shuzo nodded and walked him through a set of stretches for his whole body.

When it was time to leave, Nazo thanked them, "I will stretch when I get home, so cheer for me tomorrow, ok?"

The crew nodded, and waved goodbye. Nazo waved back and started on the long walk home.

When he arrived, dinner was being made and his father was sitting in the living room, when Nazo entered, his father looked up, "Nazo, welcome back, how was your day today?"

Nazo smiled and told him all about the game Target Practice, about the many rounds they had played while there. He left out the part of Shingo Sawatari. He did not want to worry his parents. His father laughed at Nazo's antics. "Well it is good to hear that you are getting some exercise while there. It seems to me that joining that duel school was the right choice. Now dinner is going to be soon, so why don't you shower up and get changed ok?"

Nazo nodded and did just that. While eating dinner, he talked to his mother about what had transpired at the duel school. Surprisingly, she was happy to see him getting along with friends, even if it was all centered around dueling. After they finished up dinner, Nazo sat in the living room, doing stretches that Shuzo and Yuzu had suggested. His father was reading a piece of paper quite seriously. The phone rang and his father got up and answered it.

"Hello? Ryo speaking…. Yes…" Nazo's father looked around and then entered the kitchen and lowered his voice, Nazo was interested so he craned his neck and strained to hear.

"They dueled my son?... Cards you say?... You know that is ridiculous, why would that even happen?... Why would playing a card have any effect on that?... No, he made no mention of it….. Of course I will check it out tomorrow with the others…. Regarding my son….. ah, thank you…. Of course….Good bye."

Nazo went back to his stretches as his father walked back into the living room. His father sat down in the chair he had occupied before and let out a heavy sigh. Nazo looked up, "Dad? Is something wrong?"

His father looked up before shaking his head, "No, just some error at work that I need to fix. It seems that the newest calculation my co-worker brought up had a flaw, and it was relatively big one at that. Now my team needs to debug it."

Nazo nodded and started to reach for his feet, when his father spoke again, "Nazo, have you been able to play… that yet?"

Nazo jolted slightly at the topic, he stopped stretching and turned to face his father, "No I… I have not been able to get… it out yet."

His father nodded, "I see, well I believe in you. You will one day be able to do it.

Nazo swallowed, "Why the odd question?"

His father sighed, "I was interested is all. I was wondering if after you joined the duel school you found what you were lacking."

Nazo shook head, "No, but I can hope one day."

His father nodded, "One day indeed, now it is late, after your stretches, go to bed."

Nazo nodded, "Ok dad."

-§-

And there is the third chapter, a bit shorter than the last two, but hey, better than nothing.


	4. Chain Frenzy

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

When Nazo woke up, he was sore, not as sore as he had expected, but it was an unusual feeling for him. After fumbling out of bed, Nazo got ready for the day. After eating breakfast, he stretched to relieve himself of some of his soreness. At around 11, he got ready and ran out of the house to his duel.

The Overseas school was quite large, not as large as LDS, but still took up a substantial amount of area within Miami City. As expected from the name, children from all over the world came to this school to train and participate in the Miami Championships. Like LDS, there was a very strict curriculum to adhere to. There were courses for Fusion, Synchro, XYZ, and a general course if you didn't fit in the former three. Nazo walked up to the group who had congregated in front of the gym. Nico was discussing something with Yuya, while the Yuzu, Sora, and the other three were talking excitedly.

Ayu spotted Nazo from a ways off and waved to him, which he returned. As Nazo drew near, the others all shouted out their greetings. Nico Smiley walked up to him and grinned. "Good to see you're here on time Nazo, your opponent is not one to be kept waiting."

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Who am I dueling?"

Nico clasped his hands together, "Your opponent is Haru Daikuda. He is the one of the top ranking students at this school, from the general section. His deck is a fascinating one."

Nazo nodded, "All right then, shall we get going?"

Nico nodded and guided Nazo to the duel field he would be playing on. The others went to the stands while Nazo walked down to the duel field. His opponent wore the standard Overseas uniform, which consisted mostly of blues. His brown hair was swept to one side and his blue eyes looked confident, if not cocky.

"Welcome to the Overseas school, you must be Nazo."

Nazo nodded, "That's right, nice to meet you, Haru Daikuda right?"

The boy nodded, "Well then, let's not waste time! Prepare yourself!"

Nazo frowned as he activated his duel disk. _"Nico was right; he really doesn't like to be kept waiting…"_

Haru called out, "Action field ON! Chain Chasm!"

The machine whirred to life before the stage was bathed in white light. Slowly the light faded to show an area covered in chains. Chains hung from the ceiling, there were conveyer belts made of chains. Nazo looked around. Many of the virtual chains had rust on them. It was a pretty depressing sight. Nazo sighed, _"Really hope this guy isn't playing Iron Chain…"_

Haru called out "Duelists locked in battle!"

Nazo nodded, "Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!"

The pair continued on, "They storm through this field! Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling! ACTION DUEL!"

Nazo 4000 Cards 5

Haru 4000 Cards 5

The cards scattered down. Haru smiled and started to run.

"I will go first! I set all my cards down and end my turn!"

Immediately, he placed all his cards in his duel disk and five face downs appeared, before fading.

Nazo scowled, "My turn! Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards 6

Haru 4000 Cards 0

Nazo glanced down, he had drawn his key card, Dragon ravine, but he wanted to try a new style of dueling. He slotted it into his hand and instead played a spell.

"I activate Foolish burial! I send one card from my deck to my grave, and I choose Tuner monster, Dragunity Phalanx. I now play out Dragunity dux, and I synchro climb to level 8! Come forth! Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The white dragon appeared in a flurry of wind, and landed on near Nazo's side. Nazo started to run across the field towards Haru, "I attack with Stardust! Spark shot!"

The Dragon flew ahead of Nazo and shot a blast at Haru who smirked, "I activate Defense Draw! I take no battle damage from this attack! Plus I draw off it, but that is only the beginning!"

With that he ran to the side and sprung up to grab a hanging action card.

Haru smiled, "I now activate chain healing, then chain detonation, then accumulated fortune, then the action card chain whip, then finally, chain strike!"

Nazo paled, "You have got to be kidding me!"

Haru laughed, "Chain strike is chain link 6! You take 400 points of damage for each link, thus you take 2400 points!" Chains flew out of the card and struck Nazo dropping him to 1600. "Next is the action card chain whip, which deals 100 points for the chain link it is! It is chain link 5, meaning 500 more points of damage." Nazo flinched as he was hit. "Accumulated Fortune allows me to draw two cards." Haru swiped two cards from his deck. "Chain Detonation lowers your life points by 500 more." An explosion knocked Nazo off his feet. "And Chain healing gives me 500 life points. Since both chain detonation and Chain healing were chain link 2 or 3, I can shuffle them back into the deck."

Haru slotted the two cards back into the deck and it was shuffled.

Finally, the Stardust's attack slammed into the card, which negated it, allowing Haru to draw once again.

Nazo breathed wearily as he stood up slowly, "Chain burn huh?"

Haru clapped his hands, "You figured it out, though you sure took your sweet time about it! Chains are the beauty of dueling! Why waste time trying to summon out monsters when you can strike your opponent directly! Marvelous!"

Nazo grimaced, there was no Dragunity that stopped chained effects, rather, Haru could just chain his cards to Nazo's effects and in turn get a higher chain link count.

Nazo sighed, "I set two cards... Turn end…"

Haru smirked, "Draw!"

Nazo 600 Cards 2

Haru 4500 Cards 4

Haru check his cards then nodded. "This is game! I set 2 cards and I summon out card Car D!"

A small sleek blue card appeared on the field. Haru smiled, "I tribute it to draw two cards, but then it becomes my end phase, I end my turn!"

Nazo scowled, "Draw!"

Nazo 600 Cards 3

Haru 4500 Cards 3

Haru laughed, "This is over! I activate Gift Card, and then chain Bad Reaction to Simochi! You take 3000 points of damage!"

Nazo smirked, "I can chain my own card! I activate Mystical Space Typhoon! I can destroy one spell or trap card on the field, and I choose Bad Reaction!"

The card produced a tornado that whipped across the field and tore up the trap card. Gift card then shone and bestowed 3000 life points to Nazo.

Haru scowled, "Lucky! I will get you next time!"

Nazo smiled, "Sure you will, Anyway, I play Black Wing- Zephros the elite!"

The black winged warrior descended to the field.

Nazo raised his hand, "I attack directly with Stardust! Spark Shot!"

Haru scowled, "I activate the swift Scarecrow in my hand! I negate the attack and end the battle phase!"

The scarecrow was projected and blocked the incoming blast. Nazo sighed, "I end my turn."

Haru called out, "Draw!"

Nazo 3600 Cards 2

Haru 4500 Cards 3

Haru looked down, "I activate cup of ace!"

A golden goblet appeared and a coin flew out.

"If I call the coin correctly, I draw 2 cards, if not, you draw 2 cards. I call heads!"

The coin spun in the air before landing on the ground with a *tink*. The face of the coin was seen clearly, it was heads.

Haru grinned, "I draw 2 cards, now I set 4 cards down and end my turn."

Nazo frowned, "Draw!"

Nazo 3600 Cards 3

Haru 4500 Cards 0

Nazo glanced down and his eyes widened slightly… "This will work…"

Nazo looked up once again, "I set one card down, then I play out Dragunity Aklys and I synchro summon it with Blackwing- Zephros the Elite to make Dragunity Knight-Gae Dearg!" A black and red dragon with a black and red rider flew onto the field.

"Now! I attack with Gae Dearg!"

Haru pressed his duel disk, "I activate my face down! Defense Draw!"

Haru rolled to the side and snatched a card off a chain conveyer belt. His malicious grin widened.

I chain the action magic, Chain bulk up! If this card is in a chain, the chain link will be one higher than the original chain link. This essentially makes this card both chain link 2 and 3! Now I activate secret barrel, then I activate accumulated fortune, and I finally activate Chain Strike!"

Chain strike once again shot out chains that impacted Nazo forcing him back. Then secret barrel came out and barraged him with bullets, kicking up dust.

The dragon finally reached the card and was blown back.

Haru laughed as he drew three cards, "you still alive over there?"

As the smoke cleared, Nazo was on his knees panting. His life points were at 200.

Nazo grit his teeth as he stood up. "I attack with Stardust Spark Dragon!" Spark Shot!'

Haru shrugged, "I discard Swift Scarecrow and negate your attack."

The attack was once again blocked by a transparent figure of the card.

Nazo clenched his fist, but did nothing else, "Turn end."

Haru reached for his card, "Draw!"

Nazo 200 Cards 1

Haru 4500 Cards 3

Haru smirked, "I set three, and end my turn!"

Nazo narrowed his eyes, "Draw…"

Nazo 200 Cards 2

Haru 4500 Cards 0

Haru laughed, "I activate 2 reckless greed, which allows me to draw 2 cards each, and my final card, I activate Just Desserts! You take 500 points of damage for every monster on your side of the field!"

Nazo smiled, "I chain my face down, Trap stun."

Haru froze at the words, "What?"

Nazo had a wicked grin on his face, "Trap stun negates all traps effects for this turn only, and since chains go in reverse… all your cards are negated."

Haru's eyes grew wide. He looked down at his disk to see the three cards all get red X's on them and disappear from his dueling screen. He now had no cards to assist him…. He was finished. Haru started to look around for an action card. One avoid could save him the game. Both Nazo and Haru spotted one far off. Both started to sprint towards it. Haru looked back and estimated the distance, Nazo was further back them himself, the action card was as good as his.

Nazo ran forward and raised his hand, "I activate-"

Haru smirked, only a few meters left and he could save himself.

"-Dragon Ravine!"

A light shot out of Nazo's duel disk into the ground. _Duel disk 101789 has connected to solid vision machine, making appropriate changes_. The area around both of them was swallowed by yellow light, and the action magic burst into blue shards. The layout changed to a valley with dragons far above. Haru stopped, staring at the blank space the card had been only moments before.

"You're kidding me right?" Haru breathed.

Nazo smiled, "I attack with Gae Dearg!" The dragon rushed forward and slashed him bringing his life points down to 2100.

"Now I attack directly with Stardust Spark Dragon!" The white dragon roared and charged a ball of energy in its mouth before firing it at Haru. The attack enveloped him and reduced his LP to 0.

As the field faded, a sign above them promptly showed Nazo's face, with a "winner" underneath.

The You Show duelists rushed the field and congratulated him. Yuya slapped him on the back, "That was one heck of a trick you pulled with your field spell."

Nazo laughed while rubbing the back of his head, "Well, since I am not as physically capable of obtaining action cards as well as others, I figured I can impose a prevention method that will allow me to even the playing field, if for only an instant."

Sora nodded sagely, "Doing anything to gain a slight advantage is what a duelist should aim for."

The group decided to head back to the duel school for a celebration of popsicles. Yuya talked with Nazo on the way back, it seems he was going to have his next duel at Unno Divination School.

Nazo raised an eyebrow at that, "Divination? So can they predict their next card or something?" Yuya shrugged, "I have no idea, either way you should come watch."

Sora pouted, "But that means he will miss my duel!"

Nazo laughed, "It is fine, I already saw you duel, furthermore it was against me, the only time I saw Yuya duel when he was paired with me; I want to see him in a one vs one match."

Sora sighed, but made no other complaints. The group walked back, talking about the nearing Miami championships. Yuzu was already entered, since she had met the requirements a long time ago. Yuya was just a few duels off from his own entrance. Sora still had to do a one more duel as well. Tatsuya was expressing excitement as well, for representing You Show this year. Nazo smiled contently at the atmosphere that was around him. Yuya and Yuzu talking with each other with small smiles on their faces, Futoshi, Ayu and Tatsuya talking about cards and combos with excited faces, and Sora talking with Shuzo about tomorrow's plan. It was a nice scene, one of togetherness and peace. Sora nudged him and struck up a conversation about action duels. It was going to be another peaceful day at this unique duel school. What could possibly go wrong?

-§-

Reiji didn't flinch as the door behind him burst open. A man with brown hair yelled, "Reiji sir! Another 2 people have been carded!"

Nakajima pounded on the desk, "Do we have any description of the perpetrator this time?"

"No sir"

Nakajima ground his teeth in frustration, "All right, you may leave." The man bowed before leaving.

Nakajima then turned to face the boy, "Reiji! What are we going to do about this?"

Reiji shook his head, "You know the plan, we don't have a defense force against them, there is nothing we can do for now."

Reiji typed on the computer screen and brought up two files. One showed Yuya, the other was Nazo.

Nakajima looked confused, "I can understand Yuya, but I thought we gave up on Nazo."

Reiji shook his head, "Just because we could not produce results, does not mean we will give up on the project. We could not get our desired data in the lab, so we simply moved it to the field."

Nakajima frowned, "Is that why you gave him the cards?"

Reiji nodded, "He produced the best results out of all our staff and students. He just needs the right conditions to get it out."

"So for now we rely on pendulum?"

Reiji nodded, "Yes, we don't know when Nazo will produce results, if at all, so we keep producing pendulum cards for now. If we one day get a conclusive test from Nazo, his cards will be mass produced as well, to fight."

Nakajima nodded, "As you say sir."

Nakajima bowed and exited the room leaving Reiji alone. Reiji sighed; things were much worse than he had originally planned. The project he had worked on for months had turned out to be a dud. The only saving grace was Yuya Sakaki and his pendulum summoning. At least they would have some advantage while fighting against the invading forces.

-§-

I actually based this duel off my own experience, when I baited out my opponent's cards so that I could chain my own trap stun… the look on his face was priceless.


	5. Fusion vs XYZ

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

The day of Yuya's duel at the Unno Divination School started pretty bad for Yuya. Nazo sighed as he ran in late only to look up his opponent's skirt. To Yuya's credit, he did hang in there, even with a less than desirable hand. His opponent, who apparently was the ace at Unno Divination School, told his fortune and tried to make him quit, this was repeated by most of the stadium with many, many people repeating the same thing. To this day Nazo had no idea how Mieru got her monster to eject a tarot card to tell someone's fortune mid-duel. It was cool, but it seemed kind of unnecessary. Either way, it was quite impressive that Yuya was able to execute a fusion summon, and he won because of it. As he congratulated Yuya with the rest of the group, his opponent started to chase him around, calling him her darling. All Nazo could do was laugh as Yuzu attacked Yuya with paper fans.

It had been a day since then and Nazo was walking up to the LDS tower. He had received a call from Nico Smiley the day before and he was scheduled to duel a member from the fusion course. As he approached he looked around for his friends, but saw no sign of them. He shrugged; there was still time before the duel. A while later, the group finally gathered, unfortunately, their faces were more guarded than usual. He supposed that it was because of the duel war that they had participated in before against LDS. He personally had nothing against LDS. In fact some of his friends went here. As the group filed into Nazo's assigned dueling room, they saw a red haired boy dressed in a blue jacket. Nazo heard Sora scoff in disgust. Nazo could hardly blame him. The boy looked very inept. His jacket looked rugged and dirty, as well as his disk seemed to be a bit big for his size. The boy knelt down and picked up a card, one that he had probably dropped, and turned to face the group.

Nazo called out, "You're my opponent right? Kodochi Maida?

The boy started then nodded, "Uhh… yeah! That's me; sorry it has been a busy day… Sorry, what was your name?"

Nazo raised his eyebrow, "Nazo Ryukesoku."

The boy snapped as if he recalled hearing that, "Ah right, right, well then shall we begin?"

He turned to face him and activated his duel disk. Nazo sighed in exasperation, "We still need to turn on the action field you know…"

The boy muttered something before giving Nazo a grin, "Why don't we duel without the action field this time?"

Nazo frowned, "If you insist… an official duel is still an official duel… Don't go back on your word."

Nazo activated his duel disk, "DUEL!"

Nazo: 4000 Cards: 5

Kodochi: 4000 Cards: 5

Nazo grabbed a card from his hand, "I will go first! I set one monster and set 2 cards, I end my turn!"

Kodochi nodded, "Draw!"

Nazo: 4000 Cards: 2

Kodochi: 4000 Cards: 6

Kodochi picked up a card, "I play out Gladiator Beast Lanista. I attack!"

The eagle humanoid rushed forward and struck the facedown, revealing it to be Dragunity Phalanx before it disappeared.

Kodochi smiled, "I activate the effect of Lanista! I can shuffle this monster back into the deck and special summon out a Gladiator Beast monster, I summon out Gladiator Beast Bestiari. When this card is special summoned by a Gladiator Beast effect, I can destroy one spell or trap card on the field, I choose the one of your face downs, the right one."

Nazo's mystical space typhoon burst into shards. Kodochi nodded in satisfaction, "I set one card and end my turn."

Nazo gripped his top card, "Draw!"

Nazo: 4000 Cards 3

Kodochi: 4000 Cards: 4

Nazo smiled, "I activate my field spell card, Dragon Ravine!"

Kodochi laughed, "I activate my face down Disarm! I can send one Gladiator Beast monster back into my deck and I can negate the activation of one spell card and destroy it. I send back Gladiator Beast Secutor"

Nazo frowned as he slotted the card into the grave. "I play out Dragunity Legionnaire and I equip Dragunity Phalanx to him!"

The winged human appeared and grabbed the knife next to him.

"I activate Legionnaire's effect! I can send on equip spell card to the grave to destroy one face-up monster on the field."

Legionnaire threw the knife at Bestiari and it exploded. "Now I attack with Legionnaire."

The winged man charged forward and struck Kodochi.

"I end my turn."

Kodochi snatched his next card, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 1

Kodochi 2800 Cards: 4

Kodochi glanced down and revealed a card. "I activate Gladiator Proving Ground, which allows me to add one level 4 or lower Gladiator beast to my hand. I add Gladiator Beast Hoplomus to my hand, and I summon him out."

A large rhino with tan armor appeared on the field. A floating ring of shields surrounded it.

Kodochi held out a card, "Since I control a gladiator beast monster, I can special summon test tiger from my hand to the field!"

An orange tiger appeared of the field and roared.

"Now I activate test tiger's other ability! I can tribute it to send one gladiator beast back in to the deck, and special summon out another gladiator beast! This summon is treated as if a gladiator beast summoned it."

The tiger roared and disappeared off the field. The rhino faded from view as Kodochi removed it from the field and slotted it into his deck. He then got a card and played it. "I summon out Gladiator Beast Darius. His effect allows me to special summon one Gladiator Beast monster from my grave to the field, I choose Gladiator Beast Bestiari."

The winged monster reappeared on the field.

"Now I fuse these two monsters together by shuffling them into the deck!"

Kodochi grabbed the cards and slotted them into the duel disk, then clasped his hands above his head and called out "FUSION SUMMON" while bringing his hands level with his face. "Come forth, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus!"

A great green monster appeared, with a resemblance to Bestiari.

"I activate the effect of my Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, "I can target up to two cards on the field and destroy them. I choose your Dragunity Legionnaire and your face down!"

Nazo frowned, "I chain my face down! Reckless Greed! This allows me to draw two cards, but I cannot draw for my next two draw phases!"

The card flipped over and Nazo drew two cards.

Legionnaire went up in smoke.

"Now I attack directly with Gyzarus."

The bird charged forward and struck Nazo for 2400 points of damage.

"Now I can return my Gyzarus to the extra deck and summon out two more Gladiator Beasts. I summon out Gladiator Beast Secutor, and Gladiator Beast Retiari. I activate Retiari's effect! When summoned, I can banish one card from your graveyard, I chose Dragunity Phalanx."

Nazo grit his teeth as he removed Phalanx and placed it in his deck holder.

"I set one card and end my turn."

Nazo clenched his fist, "Because of the effect of reckless greed, I do not draw.

Nazo 1600 Cards 3 Reckless 1/2

Kodochi 2800 Cards 1

Nazo slotted a card into his duel disk, "I activate Cards of Consonance! I can discard my tuner monster Dragunity Phalanx, to draw to more cards."

Nazo slotted Phalanx to the grave to draw two cards. He looked over them and smiled. _"Perfect."_

"I summon out Dragunity Dux! He allows me to equip a level 3 or lower dragon type Dragunity monster, I choose Dragunity Phalanx." The eagle garbed monster landed down and grabbed the knife. "I summon out Dragunity Phalanx! Dux threw the knife to the ground and it transformed into the small purple dragon.

"I tune my Phalanx with my Dux! Synchro Summon! Come forth Dragunity Knight-Vajrayana!" The red dragon with rider slowly descended to the field. "Due to Vajrayana's effect, I can equip Phalanx to him!"

The dragon obtained the familiar dagger. Nazo held out another card from his hand, "I now special summon out Garuda the Wind Spirit, by banishing one wind monster from my grave, I banish Dragunity Legionnaire, come on out, Garuda!"

Nazo placed Legionnaire in his deck box soon after the winged beast monster stood on the field.

"I activate Phalanx's effect and summon him to the field!" The dragon soon was on the field once more.

"Once again! I tune my Phalanx with my Garuda! Synchro Summon! Come forth Dragunity Knight-Vajrayana!"

Another red dragon appeared, this one also brandishing a knife from its effect.

"I summon out Phalanx one last time!" The small dragon roared as it appeared.

Nazo clenched his fist, "I am constructing the overlay network! I am overlaying both my level 6 Vajrayana's! Overlay!"

The two monsters dissolved into green light, which were sucked into portal at Nazo's feet.

"XYZ Summon! Rank 6! Heratic Dragon King of Atum!" The golden armored dragon let out a cry as it landed on the field, two small white orbs circling it.

Yuzu was astounded, "Back to back Synchro into XYZ?"

The rest of the group watched in silent awe as the duel continued.

Kodochi seemed to scowl deeply at his actions, "XYZ? It doesn't matter what you do!"

Nazo smirked, "I detach one overlay unit from Atum to activate his effect! I can summon out one dragon type monster from my deck, but its attack and defense become zero! I summon out Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"

One unit disappeared and Nazo grabbed a card from his deck and placed it on the field, Soon the Darkened dragon sat in defense position.

"Red-eyes effect! I can summon one dragon from my graveyard! I choose the Vajrayana that I just got rid of, come on back!"

The red dragon appeared once more. "I am tuning my level 2 Phalanx with my level 6 Vajrayana, Synchro Summon! Come on out! Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The white dragon came down in a brilliance of light. "I now overlay over my Atum a new monster! Come on out! XYZ Change! Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger!" Atum became a ball of white light and shot upwards into generated swirling clouds. A flash was seen and now a red armored dragon with a man wielding two spears came down in its place. Two overlay materials hovered around it.

"Battle! I attack your Gladiator Beast Retiari with my Stardust Spark Dragon! Spark Shot!"

Kodochi pressed on his duel disk screen, "I activate my trap! Defensive Tactic! When I control a Gladiator Beast monster, I can activate this card, this turn, none of my monsters can be destroyed by battle, and all battle damage is reduced to zero!"

The shot was blocked by the barrier. Nazo frowned, "I end my battle phase!"

Kodochi smirked, "I activate Retiari's effect and I bring it back to my deck to summon out Gladiator Beast Murmillo, who can activate his effect! I can destroy one face up monster on the field, I choose Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"

The fish that came to the field shot out spines that flew towards Red Eyes.

"I activate Stardust Spark Dragon's effect! Once per turn, I can negate the destruction of one card I control, I negate the destruction of Red Eyes!"

Stardust created a shield around Red-eyes and the spines bounced off.

Kodochi shrugged, "You can only continue to hold off so much, wonder when you will realize you are powerless."

Nazo glanced over his hand again, "Turn end."

Kodochi smirked, "Draw!"

Nazo 1600 Cards 1

Kodochi 2800 Cards 2

Kodochi grabbed a card from his hand. "I summon out Gladiator Beast Laquari! Now I can fuse all three of my monsters! Fusion Summon!"

He once again clasped his hands together over his head and brought them level to his face.

"Come forth Gladiator Beast Heraklinos!"

A large bulking monster with 3000 attack came down to the field. It roared.

Kodochi held out his hand, "Attack Stardust Spark Dragon!"

Heraklinos ran forward to strike Stardust.

Nazo called out, "I activate Stardust's effect and I choose Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The barrier came up once more and it was protected, but Nazo still took damage.

Kodochi shrugged, "I set one card and end my turn."

Nazo frowned, "I do not draw due to Reckless Greed"

Nazo 1100 Cards 1

Kodochi 2800 Cards 0

Nazo pointed towards Stardust, "I activate his effect on Red-eyes-"

Kodochi acted, "I activate my face down, Gladiator Beast War Chariot! When an effect monster uses its effect, I can negate it and destroy it as long as I have a Gladiator Beast on the field."

A chariot loaded with spears appeared and rammed itself into Stardust, who burst into shards.

Nazo frowned, "I activate the effect of Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, I can summon one dragon monster from my graveyard, I summon out Vajrayana."

The red dragon flew down to the field. Nazo slotted the his last card into his duel disk, "I activate foolish burial, I can send one monster from my deck to my grave, I choose Blackwing-Zephros the Elite."

The card was ejected from the deck. "Now I will activate Zephros' effect, I pay 400 life points and return one face up card to summon this card from the grave. I return my Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon."

The dark dragon left the field to be replaced by the black-winged humanoid.

"Now I banish my Vajrayana to once again summon my Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon."

The red dragon faded from view and the Red-eyed dragon took to the field once again, this time boasting an impressive 2800 attack power.

"I activate the effect of Red-eyes once again! I summon out Dragunity Phalanx!" The small tuner once again appeared.

"I synchro climb to level 8! Come forth Scrap Dragon!"

A purple dragon appeared, covered in rusted junk, steam leaking from a rusty pipe.

I activate Scrap Dragon's effect! I can destroy once card on my side of the field to destroy one card on your side, I choose Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger and Gladiator Beast Heraklinos!"

Both monsters exploded, blue shards flying upward.

"Battle! I attack directly with Scrap Dragon! Scrap Breath!"

The Purple Dragon flew forward and launched a scrap infused attack at Kodochi, causing his life points to drop to zero.

As the holograms faded, Kodochi walked up to Nazo, "Nice duel… but if you will excuse me, I have other matters to attend to." With a slight nod, the boy walked out of the arena.

The group walked up to Nazo cheering and celebrating, "Nazo that was awesome! Why didn't you tell us you could XYZ summon?"

Nazo gave a weary smile, but it was a smile none the less. He motioned for them to walk and talk, and proceeded to head towards the door. As he exited, he failed to spot Kodochi, guess the boy had started to run after he had exited. The group caught up and Nazo began to speak.

"My father is an engineer that works for the LDS Corporation. Since LDS is huge on dueling, every month or so they have a bring your son/daughter to work day. During the time the parents are working, the children will learn about a course selected by their parents. Of course the courses are very simple, and only have the bare bones explanations, but it is still a fun course. Afterword, during free time, students from the actual LDS course come in and duel you/ teach you. It is a well-constructed and thought out system that gets children interested in dueling. It also allows LDS to keep tabs on duelists with potential."

Futoshi scrunched his nose, "Seems to have a few ulterior motives to it."

Nazo laughed, "What do you expect? This is a company that is centered on dueling and its products, I think they would have a few methods like this. Anyway, what is beneficial is that the person teaching the lesson is the same each time. They start recognizing you after you come in so many times and once the lesson is over and there is free time, they take you to the side and teach you just a bit more. My father has worked for LDS for around 6 years. Once I was ten, I started attending these seminars. Half the time I went to the Synchro seminars, and half the time I went to the XYZ seminars."

"That is pretty impressive," said Tatsuya as he walked beside Nazo, "I hear it takes a while to get the hang of a new summoning method."

Nazo laughed, "You could say that, but I believe Yuya here got used to Pendulum Summoning in a day."

Yuya laughed, "It still took me 300 tries to get it down."

Yuzu smiled, "Either way, congratulations! You are now officially entered into the Miami Championships. All we need to do now is wait for Yuya."

Yuya pounded his chest in pride, "Don't worry about me, I am right behind you guys. We will all get into the Miami championships."

The group proceeded back to the school for a lesson.

-§-

Nazo stretched happily on his bed. He was finally in the Miami championships. It was going to be an exciting experience, with new duelists. There were tons of people signing up for this one event, and many of them held formidable strength. Nazo shrugged, even if he was defeated in the upcoming rounds, he would be trying his best, and that would be good enough."

His duel disk rang, Nazo smiled, he had sent his Miami championship registration in earlier that day and it was probably his confirmation call. He picked it up, "Hello?"

A woman's voice filtered though, Hello? Is this Nazo Ryukesoku correct?"

"That is correct."

The woman continued, "I am calling about your Miami Championship registration… you are not entered."

Nazo frowned, "What? Why not?"

"You have not met the requirements."

Nazo was beginning to feel a bit annoyed, "I have six consecutive wins! My last duel was against Kodochi Maida!"

The sound of a keyboard being pressed was heard, "Sorry, the last official duel you had was against Haru Daikuda, you did have one more duel, that was today, but it was unofficial, and it was an unregistered duel disk."

Nazo blinked in confusion, _"Unregistered? What the hell does that even mean? Who doesn't have a registered duel disk in this day and age?"_

The woman's voice broke through his thoughts, "Well, that is all I need to tell you, you still have time to register, and you are close to the completion of one requirement, so good luck."

With that, the line went dead and Nazo was left staring blankly forward. _"What the hell is going on here?"_


	6. Aggravation Duel

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

Nazo frowned as he once again trudged up to the LDS building, this time totally alone. After his confusion of no recorded duel, he had taken it up with LDS itself and after some processing, it was decided that there was an error on the part of LDS. To make up for this mistake, they would provide another duelist for Nazo on a later date. Unfortunately, this date corresponded exactly with the date of Yuya's last duel. The group apologized and told Nazo that they would be watching Yuya's duel for support, something about knowing how it felt to be from the away team with no visible supporters. Nazo could hardly blame them, going back to the LDS building probably would have been stressful for them at any rate. So as he walked into the building, he started to trudge towards the duel room that he was told about.

"Nazo? Nazo! That you?"

A voice shook him out of his thoughts and he turned to face one Yaiba Todo. Nazo smiled in recognition.

Yaiba Todo was the representative of the Synchro course at LDS duel school. As customary, he would appear at the seminars for the bring your daughter/son to work day, and duel. Before Yaiba was the representative, he was just another student in the Synchro course, and was usually chosen to assist in these seminars. This is how Nazo and Yaiba met and became friends. Both players used a deck that brought out monsters quickly to the field. While Nazo had to rely of XYZ summoning to go to the next step, Yaiba could summon out most of his powerful monsters with Synchro summoning. Whenever Nazo attended the seminar, Yaiba was the first to challenge him. It became somewhat of a custom to watch the two duel before everyone else split up to duel.

Nazo waved, "Yaiba! Good to see you, it's been… a month and a half I think?"

Yaiba nodded, "Yeah… you attended the XYZ seminar last month right? Man… nobody at the synchro seminar was close to being at your level… It was so boring."

Nazo rolled his eyes, "Like it or not, It is viable strategy on getting new duelists for LDS."

Yaiba waved off Nazo's comment, "Yeah, yeah, you don't have to remind me, I am just looking forward to dueling you again. So what brings you to LDS? I thought you joined that You Show Duel School."

Nazo sighed, "I am here to re-duel someone from the fusion course, last time the duel was counted as unofficial, and it did not go on my records."

Yaiba winced, "Ouch, that sucks, it is rare for something like that to happen in LDS though, it usually is organized."

Nazo nodded in agreement, "And that is why I was so confused, but we are all human, so we make mistakes."

Yaiba smirked, "Being all philosophical again eh? You sure you want to be a duelist?"

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "So sorry, anyway, don't you need to be going somewhere? I assume you are here for something."

Yaiba's eyes widened, "Ah! I need to go! See you later!"

As the boy with brown hair ran off, Nazo chuckled and kept walking, Yaiba was always an easily distracted guy, but he had a good heart. Nazo approached the dueling room, thinking about who he was going to verse this time.

"Nazo, glad to see you."

Nazo turned and after recognizing who had called out to him, gave a small smile, "Reiji, this is a pleasant surprise."

Nazo held out his hand to shake. Akaba Reiji glanced down at it before giving a very small smile of his own and shaking his hand.

Nazo crossed his arms, "Now that the formalities are out of the way, what can I do for you?"

Reiji shook his head, "I am not here to ask you anything, rather, I am here to tell your opponent something. By the way, have you had any success after joining the You Show Duel School?"

Nazo's shoulders slumped, "No… Sorry… I feel that I have become better as a duelist, but I do not think I can pull that off yet. Do you want me to return-"

Reiji again shook his head, "No, we entrusted those to you for a reason. I believe that one day you will find and obtain what you are lacking to make the next step possible. Till then, I will wait."

Nazo nodded, "Thanks, I will do my best."

Reiji nodded, "Good, that is all I ask for."

With that Reiji walked into the duel arena followed by Nazo. A dark haired girl stood on the other side. Nazo frowned, she looked like a hard character to judge. She had a brown belt on that held her duel disk.

"Masumi, I need to speak to you."

Reiji walked to the other side and started talking to the girl. After a while, Reiji finished and motioned to Nazo to come over. "Nazo, this girl is Masumi Kotsu, the representative of our fusion course." With that said, Reiji walked towards the stands to oversee the match.

Nazo held out his hand, "Nice to meet you Masumi, let's make this a fun duel!"

The girl glanced at his hand before turning around walking away. Nazo let out a long sigh, he really didn't want to verse another person had a bad attitude during a duel, but there was not much he could do. Nazo turned and walked so he was a suitable distance away from her.

Both participants activated their duel disk. Masumi raised her hand, "Action Field On! Prism Prison!"

The machine beneath them slowly started and the field around them became white. The harsh light faded to reveal a field full of mirrors and prisms. Just beneath them the ground gave a shimmering rainbow color.

Masumi called out, "Duelists locked in battle!"

Nazo responded, "Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!"

The pair continued on, "They storm through this field! Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling! ACTION DUEL!"

As the cards scattered across the field, Masumi smiled, "ladies go first."

Nazo rolled his eyes, "Go for it."

Nazo 4000 Cards: 5

Masumi 4000 Cards 5

Masumi checked her hand, before grabbing one, "I play Gem-Knight Fusion! I fuse together Gem-Knight Garnet and Gem-Knight Lapis to make Gem-Knight Ruby!"

A large red armor knight descended to the field. Masumi smirked, "I set one card and I end my turn."

Nazo gripped his top card, "My Turn, Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 6

Masumi 4000 Cards: 1

Nazo nodded, "I activate Cards of Consonance! I discard Tuner monster Dragunity Phalanx to draw two cards." Nazo swiped two cards from his deck.

"I play Dragunity Aklys!" The small dragon appeared on the field. "I activate its effect, which allows me to special summon a Dragunity monster and equip this card to it, I summon out Dragunity Legionnaire."

The Winged Man appeared and grabbed the lance that was presented to it. Nazo held out his hand, "I activate Legionnaire's effect! I can send one card equipped to this monster to destroy one face-up monster on the field. This effect also triggers Aklys's second effect, which allows it to destroy one card on the field, I choose your facedown!"

Legionnaire wound up and threw the lance straight at Gem-Knight Ruby, but Masumi was already moving, she reached out and grabbed an action magic and slotted it into her duel disk.

"Action magic, Prism shield! Once this turn, my monsters cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects!"

A prism cage formed around Gem-Knight Ruby and the lance, as if made of light, cycled through the monster harmlessly and stabbed into the facedown behind it, destroying it.

Nazo frowned, "I set one card and end my turn."

Masumi drew her next card.

Nazo 4000 Cards: 3

Masumi 4000 Cards: 2

"You know, my dad works with jewels a lot… that is part of the reason I play Gem-Knights."

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "How interesting," he called out blandly, "just for the record, my dad doesn't work with dragons."

Masumi chuckled, "I just wanted to tell you that after seeing my father work with precious gems for many years, I have learned to use that sight on humans, see potential in them, and well… see the hesitation in them as well."

Nazo openly scoffed, "Please, human beings are not pieces of clumped together rock, you can't analyze people just because you've looked at jewels for a long time."

Masumi brought a card to her lips and smiled, "Can't I? I know for a fact that you are facing hesitation right now, regarding an XYZ problem right?"

Nazo's smiled faded, to be replaced with a grimace, "Who told you?"

Masumi smirked, "Oh? Did I hit a nerve? Thought you didn't believe that I could analyze those things."

As Nazo's scowl darkened, Masumi started to play, "I summon out Gem Armadillo which allows me to add one Gem-Knight monster to my hand! I add Gem-Knight Obsidian to my hand." She drew the card from the deck. "Now I activate the effect of Gem-Knight Fusion in my grave! I banish Gem-Knight Lazuli to add it back to my hand, then I play it to fuse the Obsidian in my hand and the Armadillo on the field!"

The card came back to Masumi's hand before she executed her moves. "Come forth! Gem-Knight Zirconia!"

The large fusion monster rose from the portal on the ground and let out a cry which seemed to send a shockwave in Nazo's direction.

Masumi grinned, "I activate Obsidian's effect! When Obsidian is sent from the hand to the graveyard, I can special summon out one level 4 or lower normal monster from the grave to the field! Come on out Gem-Knight Garnet!"

The red armored warrior reappeared on the field. Masumi clenched her hand into a fist, "Battle! I attack your Legionnaire with my Gem-Knight Garnet!"

Nazo turned and started to run, scanning the field for action cards. The red warrior ran up to the winged man and punched him, causing him to shatter into blue shards, Nazo winced as his life points dropped by 700 points.

Masumi continued, "I attack directly with Gem-Knight Ruby!"

The larger red suit launched forward and struck Nazo causing him to skid and tumble on the ground. Nazo could faintly hear the ticker count out the 2500 points of damage he had taken.

Masumi laughed, "You're finished! Gem-Knight Zirconia, Attack Directly!"

Nazo pushed himself off the ground and dived for a card on a pillar. He grabbed it and slotted it in his duel disk, "I activate Action Magic Avoid!"

The large knight's punched flew by him and hit the ground. The monster then jumped back to its master's side.

Masumi shrugged, "Guess you got lucky… Oh well, guess next turn will have to do, I end my turn."

Nazo took a deep breath before drawing his next card.

Nazo 800 Cards: 4

Masumi 4000: Cards 1

Nazo glanced at his hand. "I play Dragunity Dux!"

The familiar winged man appeared on the field. "His effect activates! I can equip one Dragunity monster from the grave to him, I choose Phalanx, which then special summons itself to the field! Then I synchro summon to create Vajrayana!"

The purple armored dragon appeared and became green rings, which encircled Dux. After a flash of light, Dragunity Knight- Vajrayana stood where the two had disappeared.

"I attach Aklys to Vajrayana!" The lance appeared and Vajrayana took hold of it.

Nazo selected a card from his hand, "I equip Vajrayana with Dragunity Divine Lance! This powers him up by 100 points times his level, meaning he is now at 2500 points!"

A blue aura flashed around him as the monster gained strength.

"Nazo smiled, "Furthermore! I can equip one tuner Dragunity monster from my deck directly to my monster! I choose Bradistock!" A small claw appeared on Vajrayana.

Nazo nodded, "Finally I activate Vajrayana's effect! I can send one equip spell card to the grave and double his attack! I send Aklys, which allows me to target one card on the field and destroy it, I choose Gem-Knight Zirconia!"

Vajrayana threw the lance at Zirconia only for it to phase harmlessly through.

Nazo glanced down at his screen to see that Masumi has once again used the Action Magic, Prism Shield.

Masumi smirked, "I thought you were going to prove me wrong by XYZ summoning this turn… guess you really do have a problem with it."

Nazo narrowed his eyes, "it doesn't matter! Vajrayana is now at 5000 attack and with brandistock equipped! I can attack twice this battle phase! I attack Gem-Knight Garnet!"

Vajrayana roared and rushed at the Red armored monster only to be stopped as Garnet was swallowed by a prism.

Masumi smirked, "I activated Action magic, Prism Price! I tribute one monster on my side of the field and end the battle phase, plus I get to draw one card. If the card drawn is a monster, I add it to hand, if not, I send it to grave."

Masumi drew, "I drew the level 4 monster, Gem-Knight Tourmaline."

Nazo clenched his fist. "Turn End, Vajrayana's attack goes back down to 2500."

Masumi laughed, "Where is your bravado from earlier? Draw!"

Nazo 800 Cards: 2

Masumi 4000 Cards: 3

Masumi glanced at her hand. "I activate the effect of Gem-Knight Fusion! I banish Gem-Knight Garnet to return it to my hand."

The magic card was promptly ejected and Masumi swiped it up. "Now I activate it! I fuse together Gem-Knights Tourmaline, Sapphire, and Crystal!" Come forth, Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond!"

The 3400 attack monster slowly descended. Nazo unconsciously took a step back. Masumi raised her hand and pointed at her new monster, "I activate her effect! I can send one Gem-Knight monster on the field to the grave to special summon one Gem-Knight Fusion monster to the field ignoring its summoning conditions! I send Gem-Knight Ruby to the grave to summon out Gem-Knight Master Diamond!"

The lady knight held out her hand and the large red Knight burst apart into shimmering blue fragments, only for the shards reform into a new knight with an impressive sword adorned with gems.

"Master Diamond gains 100 attack points for every Gem-Knight currently in my grave! I have 5 so its attack rises to 3400!" A blue aura surged around the Knight as it powered up.

"Battle! I attack your Dragunity Knight- Vajrayana with my Gem-Knight Master Diamond!"

The knight launched off the ground and flew towards the monster. Before contact could be made however, the dragon knight was encased by a prism.

Nazo smiled, "I also activate Prism Price, your battle phase is now over and I draw a card."

Nazo grabbed the top card and looked at it before sighing and turning it to face Masumi, "I drew the level 6 monster Dragunity Arma Mystletainn."

Masumi smirked, "I end my turn."

Nazo narrowed his eyes, "My turn, Draw!"

Nazo 800 Cards: 4

Masumi 4000 Cards: 0

Nazo scanned his hand,_ "All right, with this I should be able to deal some damage."_

Nazo took a card from his hand, "I activate Dragon Ravine! I discard one card to get Dragunity Dux to hand."

The field shone and changed as Nazo got the card from his deck.

"I play Dragunity dux and activate his effect, equipping Dragunity Phalanx to him. I then special summon out Dragunity Phalanx."

The purple dragon appeared on the field. "I now send Dragunity Phalanx to grave to summon out Dragunity Arma Mystletainn." The yellow dragon appeared in a flurry of wind. "Mystletainn allows me to equip Phalanx and I bring Phalanx out once more."

The small dragon appeared from a portal. "I tune together Dragunity Dux with Dragunity Phalanx! Synchro summon! Come on out, Dragunity Knight-Gae Dearg!"

The Blue and Red dragon and rider descended. Nazo pointed at Gae Dearg, "I activate his effect, which allows me to add one level 4 or lower winged beast or dragon type monster to hand, then I must discard one dragon or winged beast monster. I add Blackwing-Zephyros the Elite, and I also discard him."

Nazo took the card from the deck and moved it to the grave. Now I construct the overlay network! I overlay my level 6 Gae Dearg with my level 6 Mystletainn! XYZ summon, Come forth Hieratic Dragon King of Atum!"

The two monsters became green and were sucked into a portal at Nazo's feet, only for a golden armored dragon to rise from it. Two white overlay materials spun around it.

"I activate its effect! I detach one overlay unit to summon out one dragon monster from my deck, but both attack and defense are lowered to zero. I summon out Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!" The white orb flew upward and shone creating a rift. Soon after, the black dragon flew onto the field.

"Red-eyes effect! I can special summon out one dragon type monster from my grave! I summon back Dragunity Knight- Gae Dearg!"

The dragon reappeared on the field.

"I activate the effect of Zephyros! I can pay 400 life points to return one face up card on my side of the field to the hand to summon out this card from the grave! I return Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"

The dragon faded from view as the black winged man jumped to the field.

"I now banish my Atum to re-summon out my Red-Eyes!" A dark void sucked Atum into it and forced it to disappear. Out of the void flew out Red-eyes.

"Red-eyes effect! I summon out Phalnanx and I tune it with Blackwing-Zephyros the Elite to synchro summon out Vajrayana!"

The Familiar red dragon descended. "Vajrayana effect goes off and I equip Phalanx, only for it to be resummoned!"

The small dragon once again reappeared.

"Now I construct the overlay network! I overlay my level 6 Vajrayana with my level 6 Gae Dearg! XYZ summon! Come forth! Constellar Ptolemy M7!"

The monsters disappeared into the portal once more, only for a mechanical dragon to rise up.

"Ptolemy M7 Effect! I detach one overlay unit to return one monster on the field or grave to the hand, I choose my own Dragunity Arma Mystletainn. I send my Phalanx to grave to summon him out, and I return Phalanx to the field with both Mystletainn and Phalanx's effects! I tune my Phalanx and my Mystletainn together! Synchro Summon, Come forth Scrap Dragon!"

The purple, junk infused dragon appeared and roared. Nazo looked up, smirking, "I can assure you that I don't have any problems XYZ summoning."

Masumi laughed, "You may have proved me wrong on that one aspect, but look at this! None of your monsters can beat my weakest monster!"

Nazo gave a malicious grin, "We'll see about that. I activate Scrap dragon's effect! I destroy one card on my side of the field to destroy one card on your side of the field, "I destroy my dragon ravine to destroy Gem-Knight Master Diamond!"

The ravine lit up and shattered into yellow shards which gathered in scrap dragon's mouth.

"Scrap Dragon, Scrap Annihilator!"

The dragon fired and hit Master Diamond squarely in the chest, causing it to cry out in pain before shattering.

"Battle! My Red-eyes will attack your Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond!"

Masumi gasped, "Why? My monster-"

Nazo held out his last card in his hand, "I activate the Quick-Play spell card Forbidden Lance, which lowers a monster's attack by 800 points, but allows it to be unaffected by other spell or trap cards! I target Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond!"

The golden lance pierced the lady knight causing it to lose attack. The black dragon gathered flames in its mouth before it loosed them on the Knight, destroying it and inflicting 200 points of damage.

"Now Scrap Dragon! Attack Gem-Knight Zirconia! Scrap Breath!"

The dragon gathered in air before releasing a junk infused barrage against the Knight. The Knight shrugged it off and charged forward and threw a punch at the dragon, destroying it.

Nazo tapped his duel disk, "Trap card open! I activate Shadow Impulse! When a Synchro monster is destroyed, I can summon out another synchro monster with the same Type and level but different name, I choose Void Orge Dragon!"

A sinister red dragon with large claws and orbs embedded into its body appeared.

"Void Orge dragon! Attack with Flames of Void!"

The red dragon drew in a breath before firing it at Zirconia destroying it and inflicting 100 points of damage.

"Now Ptolemy M7 attacks directly!"

The beast charged and hit the girl, dealing 2700 points of damage, and knocking her off her feet in the process.

Masumi gasped as she got up, but she smirked, "Nice try! But I still have 1000 life points left!"

Nazo frowned before holding up a card in his hand, it was an action card.

Masumi's eyes widened, "What when did you-"

Nazo played the card, "Action magic Through the Prism!" I select one monster on my side of the field, it can attack again this turn, but its attack is halved. I choose Void Orge Dragon."

The monster was covered in a red light. The light was supposed to represent the attack reduction of the monster, but the glow only made the monster more ominous.

"Void Orge Dragon, Attack!"

Masumi turned on her heel and ran, searching for an action card. She spotted one not far away and jumped towards it, she grabbed it rolled and jumped back up holding the card in her hand, "I activate action magic Avoid!"

As soon as she said this, Nazo called out, "I activate the effect of Void Orge Dragon! Once per turn, during either player's turn, when I have no cards in my hand, when my opponent activates a magic or trap card, I can negate it and destroy it! Void Eraser!"

The red dragon seemed to grin as it shot a black flame that consumed the card and caused it to dissolve.

Nazo raised his hand "My attack continues, Flames of Void!"

The dragon roared and charged energy before firing, wiping out the rest of Masumi's life points.

As the action field dissolved Nazo shrugged and turned around to leave.

"Wait!"

Nazo turned around and raised an eyebrow at the girl who looked apologetic.

"I'm… I'm sorry for the way I acted, but it couldn't be helped."

Nazo frowned, "What?"

"Masumi, I will take it from here."

Both duelists looked at Akaba Reiji, Nazo cocked his head to one side in confusion. Masumi nodded in appreciation and walked out of the room.

Reiji walked down and stood in front of Nazo, "I apologize for Masumi's behavior, I asked her to provoke you like that."

Nazo crossed his arms, "Why?"

Reiji sighed, "We both know that we had no luck with the experimental run with those new cards. There is possibility that a certain emotion must be felt when attempting the new summon, so I asked her to aggravate you, since she can read people so easily."  
Nazo nodded in understanding, "I see, that is why she knew about the XYZ problems."

Reiji nodded, "Indeed, looking back on the test runs, we tried all sorts of emotions, overconfidence, nervousness, urgency, and more, but none of them worked. We did not try anger though."

Nazo sighed, "I guess, you could not have told me since I would not have gotten angry otherwise, but… do you really think that the summoning method that you attempted to create to change the world for the better would be born from anger?"

Reiji let out a light chuckle, "I would hope not… but I find almost any alternative better than not being able to get the summon to work at all."

Nazo shoulders dropped, I know what you mean… well then, I will take my leave, see you at the championships."

With a wave, Nazo headed out the door, leaving Reiji all by himself.

-§-

Well there is chapter 6, I felt bad typing this chapter since I kept referring to Phalanx. That thing was summoned out so many times that even I got annoyed by it.

Nazo is finally in the championships with everyone else. Honestly, right now, I am thinking that the championships will go in a different direction, and not just because I shoved an OC in there.

There are some small fragments of information on the major backstory of this fanfiction. If you have any guesses, feel free to make a comment on it.

As always, if you enjoyed it leave a review. If you disliked it, tell me how I could do better. If card count or rulings were off, give a review or shoot me a PM.

Thank you so much to everyone that has reviewed this so far, I will try to release faster, but with school just around the corner, I can't make any promises.


	7. Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

Nazo was taken aback. As the announcers called off names of duel schools Nazo silently watched the screen to see just how many duel schools alone were entering. Yuzu's father, Shuzo had informed him around 16 schools were entering, out of each school one could expect at around 10 duelists from each, which made sense, considering there were the youth, junior youth, and junior divisions. Yuzu was still scolding Yuya for the stunt he pulled earlier that day. He had disappeared and the entire school was frantically searching for him. Well, the entire school minus one, Sora didn't seem too eager to help out.

After a while, their group was called, and the seven of them walked into the stadium. The amount of people was massive. As they walked, the announcer talked about Yuya and his new summoning method. Nazo glanced over to see how Yuya was handling the praise, only to find him looking in a certain direction. Following his gaze, Nazo discovered that Yuya was looking over at Reiji. Nazo raised an eyebrow, but shrugged it off.

The surprises seemed to keep coming one after another as it was Yuya that was chosen to do the Oath of Fair Play. Judging from his reaction, Yuya had not practiced nor even heard that he was selected for such a thing, but after getting over his initial anxiety, he gave a heartfelt speech about his past and current goals that far beat out a boring, bland list of rules and regulations. Most people in attendance seemed to agree with Nazo's assessment, since the cheers were deafening.

"Will the participants now please insert their registration cards into their duel disks."

The whole group did so. The results were surprising. Yuya was going to fight against Sawatori Shingo once again. Yuzu had a repeat match as well, one against Masumi Koto. Nazo had a duel against an international duelist. Sora was up against the mysterious Shun Korosaki.

The dueling started after that. Futoshi was able to win his match, but unfortunately, Ayu lost against the LDS junior student Reira.

Afterword, Yuzu dueled against Masumi, and this time Yuzu came out on top. All in all, the day was fun an exciting. It seemed that Masumi had somewhat gotten out of her mean streak, if one was to infer from her gesture of giving away her crystal rose.

The following day, the group met up once again. Yuya's duel was something to be inspired by. Nazo would readily admit that if he himself was in Yuya's position, he would have lost. Even then, Yuya came out on top.

"Introducing our next duelists! From the You Show Duel School, Nazo Ryukesoku! and from Strike Duel School, Getsu Motani!"

The two duelists walked on to the field and faced each other.

Nico smiley pointed upwards, "The action field this time is…. No man's land!

The machine buzzed beneath them and light shot up only for the ground to because dirt like and cracked.

Nazo looked around warily. The sky had turned dark and all around the edge of the field there was what seemed to be barbed wire. Getsu however looked around it stoically.

Nazo faced his opponent before speaking, "Duelists locked in battle!"

Getsu responded, "Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!"

The audience continued on, "They storm through this field! Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling! ACTION DUEL!"

The cards fell around them as they each drew their opening hands.

Nazo spoke, "I will go first."

Nazo 4000 Cards: 5

Getsu 4000 Cards: 5

Nazo plucked on card from his hand, "I activate Cards of Consonance! I discard tuner monster Phalanx to draw 2 cards!"

Nazo swiped two cards from the top of his deck and added them to his hand before selecting one. "I play out Dragunity Dux and equip him with Dragunity Phalanx from the grave, which I then special summon back to the field!" The purple tuner monster appeared on the field.

"I synchro climb to level 8! Come on out, Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The white dragon appeared on the field and roared. Nazo grabbed one card and slotted it into his duel disk, "I set one card and end my turn."

Getsu nodded, "Draw."

Nazo 4000 Cards: 3

Getsu 4000 Cards: 6

Getsu analyzed his hand and selected a card, "I activate the continuous magic card, Hazy Pillar, this allows me to summon out Hazy Flame monsters for one tribute less, which allows me to summon out Hazy Flame Sphinx."

The flame monster jumped to the field. "I now activate Sphinx's effect. I can declare one card type, Monster, Magic or Trap, then I send the top card of my deck to the grave, if it is the declared card type, I can special summon one fire attribute monster from my grave or my hand. I declare monster."

Getsu drew the card and after confirming it showed Nazo, "The top card was Plaugespreader Zombie, a monster card. I can now summon out one fire monster, I choose this card, come forth Hazy Flame Peryton."

A flame winged horse appeared on the field. Getsu raised his hand towards the horse "I now activate its effect, I can discard one fire monster from my hand and tribute Peryton to special summon out two Hazy Flame monsters from my deck, I send my Hazy Flame Mantikor to grave to special summon out Hazy Flame Griffin and Hazy Flame Hyppogrif."

The flame horse burst into a pillar of flame before the two flame monsters emerged from it.

Getsu smirked, "I now construct the overly network. I overly my Griffin and hyppogrif to summon out Sword Breaker."

The portal at Getsu's feet sucked in the two monsters before an armored warrior covered in weapons rose up.

"Sword Breaker effect, I can detach one overlay unit and declare a monster type, if it battles that kind of monster, it destroys it at the start of the damage step, I declare dragon."

One overlay unit was slowly absorbed into on the swords that the monster held changing its shape to a dragon-like blade.

Getsu pointed forward. "Battle, I attack your Stardust Spark Dragon with my Sword Breaker."

The warrior kicked off the ground and raised its dragon sword at Nazo's dragon.

Nazo raised his hand at his dragon, "I activate Stardust Spark Dragon's effect, I can target on card I control and I can negate its destruction once!"

The sword came down on the white dragon, but it was reflected off.

Getsu nodded, "You may get out of instant destruction, but my monster has more attack, the battle continues."

The warrior used the weapon in its other hand sliced the white dragon in half destroying it.

Getsu flicked his eyes to his other monster, "I attack directly with my Sphinx."

The monster charged forward, "Nazo tapped his duel disk, "Trap card open! I activate Defense Draw! Any battle damage I would take from this battle becomes zero and I draw one card!"

The monster slammed into an invisible barrier and Nazo drew one card. Getsu shrugged, I end my turn."

Nazo grabbed his next card, "Draw!"

Nazo 3800 Cards: 5

Getsu 4000 Cards: 2

Nazo glanced down and before choosing one, "I activate Dragon ravine!"

Nazo manually tapped his duel disk to prevent it from changing the field, he didn't need that effect. The card Dragon Ravine appeared above him instead, symbolizing that it was indeed in play.

"I discard tuner monster, Dragunity Aklys to get Dragunity Dux to my hand."

Nazo slotted the monster into his disk before extracting the appropriate card from his deck.

Nazo looked up at Getsu, "I now play out my Dragunity Dux and I synchro climb to level 8 once more! Come forth! Scrap Dragon!" Vajrayana appeared for only a few seconds before Scrap Dragon flew down to the field.

"I activate Scrap Dragon's effect! I can destroy one card on my side of the field to destroy one card on your side of the field, I destroy Dragon Ravine to destroy your Sword Breaker!"

The card above Nazo shattered and was slowly absorbed into the mouth of Scrap Dragon. "Scrap Annihilator!"

The blast collided with the armored warrior and exploded. Nazo pointed towards Hazy Flame Sphinx, "Battle! I attack your Sphinx with my Scrap Dragon, Scrap Breath!"

Getsu swiftly moved to the side and grabbed an action card. He slotted it in his duel disk, "I activate action magic, Avoid!"

The blast wave missed his monster by centimeters.

Nazo frowned, "I set one card and end my turn."

Getsu drew his next card, "Draw."

Nazo 3800 Cards: 2

Getsu 4000 Cards: 3

Getsu's eye widened fractionally. "I activate the effect of the Plaugespreader Zombie in my grave, I return one card in my hand to the top of the deck to summon him out."

Getsu slotted one card back on his deck and promptly played out the zombie. "I now activate the effect of Sphinx, and I put the top card of my deck to the grave, if it is the card type I declare, then I get to special summon out one fire monster from hand or grave, I declare monster."

Nazo grimaced as he lazily drew his card and turned it to show him, "it is monster card, Hazy Flame Cerberus. I can now summon back Hazy Flame Peryton."

The flame embodied horse came to the field. "I activate its effect, I discard Laval Lancelord and tribute Peryton to special summon out two Hazy Flame Hydras."

The horse erupted into a pillar of fire, and then two sinister multi-headed beasts emerged from it.

Getsu held up the final card in his hand, "Due to the effect of Hazy Pillar, I can summon out my final copy of Hazy Flame Hydra with no tribute." Getsu played out the card and the third copy of the multi-headed monster emerged.

"I tune together my Plaugespreader Zombie and my Hazy Flame Sphinx to summon out Crimson Blader!"

The zombie split into two rings and combined with the flame cat to bring out red armored dual-wielding monster.

"I am constructing the overlay network, I overly my 3 level 6 Hazy Flame Hydras." All three monsters became red and were sucked into the portal that formed at Getsu's feet.

"I call upon the beast that freezes everything in its wake, stare at your enemies and pierce them with your fearful gaze, render them still, Hazy Flame Basiltrice!"

A bird of multi-colored feathers and flaming wings rose from the portal. Three red orbs floated around it. Nazo's eyes widened, that monster would be a huge problem.

Getsu held up his hand towards Baslitrice, "the effects of all three hydra come into effect now, since they were used as overaly units, Basiltrice gets one extra overlay unit from my grave to itself. Three red orbs jettisoned out of Getsu's duel disk as he added Hazy Flame Griffin, Mantikor, and Hyppogrif to the monster.

"I now activate the effect of Bailtrice, I can detach one unit to banish one card on the field, I choose Scrap Dragon, Stone Gaze."

One overlay unit gathered into the eyes of the rooster head and it fired it at the purple dragon. As soon as the beam hit, Scrap Dragon turned to stone then shattered into yellow shards.

"Battle, I attack directly with Basiltrice, Scorching Breath."

The monster let out a terrifying scream, and gathered flames in its mouth before firing a jet of searing flames at Nazo. Nazo was prepared however, he was already running for an action card when his Scrap Dragon was banished. Nazo swiped an action card and slotted it in, "Action magic, Avoid!"

The avoid card appeared over him and Nazo smirked, already planning his next move. Then, three things happened at once, Getsu shook his head solemnly, a red X appeared over the card on his duel disk, and the hologram card above him shattered. Nazo could only cross his arms in front of him as he took the attack head on. Nazo had no idea how far he flew, did not count how many rolls his body did on the dirt of the action field, did not know how long he lay there like a fool coughing in the dirt.

Getsu sighed, "Basiltrice has 4 effects. 1: I can detach one overlay unit to banish one card on the field. 2: When this card has 3 or more units attached, this card gains 200 attack points per unit. 3: When this card has 4 or more units attached, this card cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. 4: When this card has 5 overlay units, this card cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects. Right now my Basiltrice has 3500 attack points, you only have 300 life points left."

Nazo struggled to get up. Getsu sighed again, "I attack directly with Crimson Blader, Scarlet Slash."

The warrior dashed forward and swung down only to hit and invisible shield. A harsh blue light covered Nazo, who finally found the strength to get up, albeit shakily.

Getsu glanced down at his duel disk to see that Draining shield had been played. He gave a small smile, "Good to see you have the determination to continue on, that is an admirable trait."

Nazo breathed heavily, "thanks… I guess."

Getsu gave a soft chuckle, "Turn end."

Nazo took a deep breath before drawing his next card, "Draw!"

Nazo 3100 Cards 3

Getsu 4000 Cards 0

He looked down and smiled, "I once again play Dragunity Dux, which allows me to equip Dragunity Phalanx to him. I use the effect of Phalanx to summon itself out, then I synch to the level 6 Vajrayana!

The red dragon appeared in a flurry of wind. "I equip Vajrayana with Dragunity Aklys." The spear appeared next to the dragon warrior who took it up.

Nazo clenched his fist, "I now use Vajrayana's effect to detach Aklys to double his attack, and I activate Aklys' effect to destroy one card, I choose Crimson Blader."

Vajrayana threw the spear at Crimson Blader, successfully impaling it, causing it to burst apart into blue shards.

Nazo nodded, "Now Vajrayana's attack is 3800, Battle! I attack your monster with my dragon!"

Getsu jumped backward, swiped a card off the ground, and inserted it into his duel disk, "Action magic, hidden landmine. When an opponent's monster attacks my own monster who has less attack, both monsters are destroyed before damage calculation, and I draw one card."

A huge explosion engulfed the field, as the light faded, Vajrayana was nowhere to be found, but Hazy Flame Basiltrice still stood.

Getsu smiled, "Since my monster has exactly 5 materials, it cannot be destroyed by card effects."

Nazo frowned, "I set two cards and end my turn."

Getsu casually drew his next card, "Draw."

Nazo 3100 Cards 0

Getsu 4000 Cards 2

Getsu looked down at his hand, "Due to the effect of Hazy Pillar, I can summon Hazy Flame monsters for one tribute less, I summon out Hazy Flame Hyppogrif."

The monster flew to the field and roared.

Getsu pointed at Nazo, "Battle, I attack you directly with Hazy Flame Hyppogrif." The monster bounded forward and brandished its claws

Nazo crossed his arms in front of him and took the hit causing him to slide back quite a way. Getsu continued, "I now attack directly with Hazy Flame Basiltrice, Scorching Breath." The hideous flame beast gathered heat into its mouth and fired flames at Nazo.

Nazo tapped his duel disk, "Trap Card Open! Stardust Re-Spark! If my opponent's special summoned monster attacks me directly and its attack is greater than or equal to my life points I can negate that attack!" The flames split down the middle and ran parallel to Nazo.

"I draw one card, then I can summon out one "Stardust" monster from my extra deck or my graveyard, I choose to revive my Stardust Spark Dragon!" Nazo drew the top card from his deck and played out his dragon once more, which appeared on the field and roared.

Getsu frowned, "That could be a problem, I proceed to main phase 2. I activate the other effect of Hazy pillar, I can target one XYZ monster on my side of the field and attach one Hazy Flame monster to it as an XYZ material, I attach my Hyppogrif to my Basiltrice."

The Hyppogrif became encased in fire and it shrunk into a small orb which then took its place in the orbit around Basiltrice.

"Now Basiltrice's effect, I detach one material to banish one card on the field, I choose Stardust Spark Dragon, Stone Gaze."

Once again, the cockatrice lookalike gathered power its eyes before firing a beam at Nazo's white dragon. The monster turned to stone instantly, before shattering into yellow shards. Getsu spoke, "Turn end."

Nazo gripped his top card, "Draw!"

Nazo 1000 Cards: 2

Getsu 4000 Cards: 1

Nazo glanced down before tapping his duel disk once more, "I activate my face down, Reckless Greed. I can draw two cards but cannot draw for my next two draw phases." Nazo promptly drew two cards from his deck and looked at them before selecting one.

"I play out Dragunity Aklys." The small red dragon appeared on the field with a shrill cry. "I now banish it to summon out Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon." The small dragon disappeared into a void and the large black dragon appeared in its place.

"I now can special summon dragon-type monster from the grave or my hand, I choose Dragunity Knight-Vajrayana."

The red dragon appeared in a flurry of wind, and roared.

Nazo nodded, "I now equip Dragunity divine lance to Vajrayana, and using the lance's effect, I also equip Dragunity Brandistock to it!"

The lance appeared for Vajrayana to grab, and a claw appeared around its wrist.

"Vajrayana effect! I can send one card equipped to this monster to the grave to have its attack doubled for the turn, I send the lance to grave to make the attack raise to 3800!'

The blue aura around Vajrayana powered it up. "Now Battle! I attack your Hazy Flame Basiltrice with Dragunity Knight-Vajrayana!"

The Red dragon flew forward and sliced the flame monster, destroying it. Nazo smiled, "Due to the effect of Brandistock, I can attack once more, End this duel!"

Vajrayana loomed over Getsu and slashed him, ending the duel.

The action field slowly vanished as the sigh above their head showed a face of Nazo with WIN printed on the bottom. Nazo walked over to Getsu and held out his hand, "That was a close game… but it was really fun nonetheless."

To Nazo's surprise, Getsu shook it while smiling, "I honestly thought that this duel was over when I got out my Basiltrice, for your creativity and determination, you definitely deserve this win, don't lose to anyone else alright?"

Nazo smiled, "Alright."

As Nazo walked back into the stands, he was met with cheers and applause from the rest of the You Show Duel School. As Ayu and Tatsuya talked to Nazo adamantly, with Futoshi saying 'Shivers!' in the background, Nazo could not help feel that today was going to be grand day.

Fate is ironic… Nazo learned that as he saw the duel turned war as he sat on the stands. Kurosaki Shun and Sora fought to their upmost in a battle that seemed out of place in the light-hearted Miami Championships. The duel ended in Shun's favor, with an incredible injury and fatigued Sora.

That night, it was discovered that Sora had disappeared. No matter how hard Nazo and the others searched, they could not find him. At the very end, the search was called off because Yuya was found unconscious in Central Park. As Nazo lay on his bed that night, he wondered how things had gotten so sour so fast. With these thoughts tumbling around in his mind, he went into a fitful rest.

-§-

Thank you for reading this chapter. School has now started so it may take a while for the next chapter. Fortunately, I have been looking forward to this chapter for a while, so hopefully it will come out faster than anticipated.

Right now, I am trying to find decks that I can use. I am not looking for the current meta decks out, like Neckroz, Shadoll, satellarknight, Burning Abyss, Yang-zings, etc. If you can give me some older decks that are focused on an archtype, that would be great. Nothing like Exodia OTK, chain burn (Already did that type of deck), or a deck full of different archtypes. Also, decks already used in the series(performapal, melodious, super heavy samurai, raid raptor, etc) cannot be included because they already legitimately "belong" to someone in the series, so I ask you to avoid those. Pendulum decks technically are out as well, since at this point only Yuya, Reiji, and Shingo are the only ones who have pendulum summoned. If you want to leave a review with a suggestion, that would be great, if you forget a deck or two, that is fine, shoot me a PM.

If you enjoyed it, please leave a review. If you disliked it, tell me how I could do better. If card count or rulings were off, give a review or shoot me a PM.

Thank you to Shimmering-Sky for reviewing chapter 6.


	8. Exceed Synchro! The XYZ Synchro Summon!

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission, especially this chapter.

-§-

Nazo slowly opened his eyes. He rubbed his eyes before glancing at the calendar. It had been four days since Yuya was found unconscious in Central Park. Sora was still missing. Yuya had been unconscious for two days after that. During that time, Futoshi lost to the same opponent Ayu lost to, Akaba Reira. On the third day, Yuya woke up. While that had been great news, Yuya had been determined to talk to Shun Korosaki. He had even gone so far as to question Masumi, Yaiba, and Hokuto to get a chance to talk. Later that day, Nazo grimly watched as his good friend, Yaiba, was thoroughly beaten to a pulp on the duel field by his opponent, Isao Kachidoki, the ace of Ryozanpaku School. After the duel ended, all the duel matches were reassigned, and to everyone's horror, Yuya had to take on Isao. The next day, Yuya dueled Isao in an intense game. At the very end, when things seemed grim, Yuya's demeanor shifted into something much more sinister and completely annihilated Isao in one attack stunning the crowd into silence. It was now the next day and Yuya was still depressed. Currently Yuzu was dueling her hardest against Mikiyo Naname of the Idol Group Duel Girls Club. As the others of the You Show Duel School cheered for her, Yuya just sat depressed.

Nazo sighed, "Yuya, pay attention."

Yuya raised his head slowly and turned to face Nazo, "Pay attention to what?"

Nazo motioned toward the duel, "Yuzu's message, it seems it is just for you."

Yuya looked at him curiously, but turned and focused more on the duel. As the duel continued, Nazo noticed Yuya's mood improving little by little. Yuya noticed the smiles of the crowd, the excitement buzzing in the air, the reaction that came from a crowd when an intense duel was ongoing. Finally, when Yuzu won, Yuya cheered with everyone else, evidently over his depression from yesterday. Nazo smiled, he was happy that his friend's mood had recovered.

Later that day, Nazo slowly walked onto the field, he was versing someone from the Smile duel school. Nico smiley was talking wildly into the mic, "Now coming from the right! Nazo Ryukesoku from the You Show Duel School! And from the left, Yumego Kozachi from the Smiling Duel School!"

Nazo took his respective place a few meters from the other boy. Nico Smiley continued, "Now the action field will be…"

"Ah hold on…" Nazo raised an eyebrow as the boy across from him interrupted the main commentator. The boy walked forward and held out his hand giving a warm smile, "Nice to meet you Ryukesoku-san, my name is Yumego Kozachi, please call me Yumego, it is a pleasure to meet you."

Nazo furrowed his brow in confusion before giving a smile himself and shaking his hand saying, "Nice to meet you Yumego, please, call me Nazo."

Yumego's face brightened and he gave a soft chuckle, "You're the first person outside of my school to actually greet me without a scowl. I can tell this will be a fun duel."

Nazo gave an inquisitive look, "How can you tell?"

Yumego motioned to the crowds around them, "Because you, unlike many of the duelists here, know that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it is about being able to enjoy yourself, and let the others around you enjoy the duel. Your friend, Yuya proved that through his entertainment duel, and I hope you can do the same."

With that message the boy jogged over to his starting position and signaled Nico to continue.

Nico coughed before re-beginning, "As I was saying, the action field this time is… Arena of Illusion!

The machine whirled into life below them, Nazo instinctively closed his eyes as everything became white, and when he opened them, he was in for a surprise. To his right, there was a waterfall, or rather, a water rise, considering that the water defied gravity. There were bubbles made out of flames, there was even a rainbow in the sky that did loop-the-loops and twisted at the ends. There were islands floating the in the sky, and many water rises ended there. All in all it was a complex area.

Nazo smiled, "Duelists Locked in battle."

Yumego answered, "Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!"

The pair chorused on, "They storm through this field! Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling! ACTION DUEL!"

The cards fell around them.

Yumego waved, "I will go first!

Nazo 4000 Cards 5

Yumego 4000 Cards 5

"I use foolish burial to send Plaugespreader zombie to the grave!"

The card was ejected from his deck. Yumego slotted the card into the graveyard. "Now I play out Zombie Master! I activate his effect, once per turn; I can revive one zombie monster from the grave as long as I discard one card as cost. I discard Mezuki to revive Plaugespreader Zombie." Yumego slotted another card into his grave before retrieving the zombie card and playing it out. The decaying monster appeared and moaned.

Yumego held out his hand, "I tune my level 2 Plaugespreader Zombie together with my level 4 Zombie Master to summon out Gaia Knight, Force of Earth!" A horse rider with two spears appeared in front of Yumego.

"I set one card and end my turn."

Nazo smiled, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 6

Yumego 4000 Cards: 1

Nazo analyzed his hand before nodding, "I play Dragunity Legionnaire!"

The small winged man appeared on the field.

"I now activate Dragunity Divine Lance! I equip it to Legionnaire, which raises its attack by 300 points. I am also allowed to equip him with one dragon Dragunity tuner monster from my deck, I choose Phalanx!"

Legionnaire held out his hands and got a knife as well as a golden lance. "Phalanx effect! I special summon him out to the field!"

The knife was thrown to the ground and enlarged to become a purple dragon with tan armor.

"I activate the effect of Legionnaire! I can send my Dragunity Divine Lance to the grave to destroy one face-up monster on your field; I choose to destroy Gaia Knight, Force of Earth!" The winged man pulled his arm back and threw the lance right at Yumego's horseman.

The other boy smirked, "Trap Card, Open! Breakthrough Skill! I target your Legionnaire! Its effect is negated, but the lance still is paid as cost."

There was a shattering sound as a silver clad monster broke through dimensions and grabbed the lance in midair, before crushing it in its hand and retreating back to where it came.

Nazo smiled before he held out his hand, "That was a nice response, but I am not done yet! I am tuning my level 2 Phalanx with my level 3 Legionnaire! Synchro summon, Come forth, Ally of Justice, Catastor!"

A white bodied machine came to the field. It had golden accents and four long spider-like legs.

"Battle! I will attack your Knight with my Catastor! Catastor's effect activates as soon as it enters battle! If it battles a monster that is not dark attribute, it is destroyed without applying damage calculation! Darkness Strike!"

The machine walked over to the other monster and struck it with one of its legs, causing it to explode. It then calmly walked back over to Nazo.

"I set one card and end my turn!"

Yumego laughed heartily, "Now for my counter-attack! Get ready! Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards 3

Yumego 4000 Cards 2

Yumego tapped his duel disk, "I activate the effect of Mezuki in grave! I can banish this card to special summon out one zombie monster from my grave, I summon out Zombie Master!"

The necromancer once again took to the field. Yumego then jumped backwards and blew out a flame bubble that held and action card.

"I once again invoke his effect, I discard one card to summon back Plaugespreader Zombie!" Yumego inserted the action card into his duel disk, and the decaying monster appeared once again.

Yumego then held out a card, "I activate Field spell, Zombie World!"

Nazo took a step back, "Field Spell?!"

The card appeared above Yumego in a flash. Yumego nodded, "You're not the only one that uses those cards Nazo, but that is not all, as long as Zombie World is on the field, all monsters on the field and in the graveyard become zombie type, also neither player can tribute summon monsters except for zombie type monsters."

Nazo's Catastor gained a sinister glow before looking decrepit and worn.

Yumego gave a confident smile, "With this, I have sealed your effects that get back your tuner monsters from grave, or at least for now."

Nazo smirked, _"This is getting interesting."_

Yumego took a deep breath, then spoke, "I am tuning my level 2 Plaugespreader Zombie with my Level 4 Zombie Master!"

The tuner monster became two rings and encircled the necromancer.

"Servants of the grave hear my call, the dragon of your resurrection has descended! Synchro Summon! Appear now! DoomKaiser Dragon!"

A large decaying dragon appeared and roared. Yumego raised his hand toward the dragon, "When DoomKaiser Dragon is special summoned, I can revive one zombie-type monster from my opponent's grave, and since they are all zombie type due to Zombie world, I choose to revive your Dragunity Legionnaire."

The winged man came back, but the suit was torn and broken in multiple places.

"Now I activate the breakthrough skill that resides in my grave! I can banish it to negate the effect of one monster you control, I choose Ally of Justice, Catastor."

Dimensions broke again, this time behind Catastor, and the monster slashed Catastor leaving a large glowing gash on it.

Yumego gave a sheepish smiled, "Sorry Nazo, this might hurt a bit. Battle! DoomKaiser Dragon! Attack his Catastor, Decaying Miasma!"

The dragon breathed in before firing a thick fog full of rotting flesh and foul matter at Catastor. The monster exploded inflicting 200 points of damage to Nazo.

"Now I attack directly with Dragunity Legionnaire!" The winged man ran forward and pulled back to strike."

Nazo shook his head, "Not this time! Trap card Open! Defense Draw! All battle damage from this attack is turned to 0 and I draw one card!"

Legionnaire punched an invisible barrier and retreated as Nazo drew one card.

Yumego shrugged, "Figured you would have a card… I set one card and end my turn!"

Nazo gripped his top card, "Draw!"

Nazo 3800 Cards: 5

Yumego 4000 Cards: 0

"I play out Blackwing-Zephros to the field!"

The winged man with dark wings appeared from a white portal below it. The effect of zombie world took effect and Zephyros became darker and his suit became decrepit.

"Battle! I attack Dragunity Legionnaire!"

The bird-clothed man dashed forward and struck the monster, inflicting 400 points of damage.

Nazo smiled, "I set one card and end my turn."

Yumego smirked, "Alright, my go. Draw!"

Nazo 3800 Cards: 3

Yumego 3600 Cards: 1

Yumego looked over his cards before looking up, "Battle! I attack your Zephyros with my DoomKaiser Dragon! Decaying Miasma!"

Nazo smiled, "I have a counter for that you know! Trap Card Open! I target your monster with Fiendish Chain!"

Chains from the ground shot up around bound the dragon, preventing it from moving.

Yumego nodded, "Impressive… but sorry, you acted too soon."

Nazo raised his eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Yumego tapped his duel disk, "Trap card open, Assault Mode Activate! I tribute one synchro monster on my field and special summon out one assault mode monster from my deck that includes the name as the tribute monster."

DoomKaiser Dragon was encased in white light and started growing in size.

Yumego chanted, "Now, DoomKaiser Dragon, awaken to the power that releases all restraints, Come forth, DoomKaiser Dragon/Assault Mode!

There was a terrifying roar as DoomKaiser Dragon/ Assault Mode appeared.

Yumego clenched his fist, "When DoomKaiser Dragon is special summoned, I can special summon as many zombie type monsters as possible from either player's grave. All monsters summoned by this effect have their effects negated and are destroyed at the end of the turn. Since Zombie world is in effect, all monsters in either player's graveyard are zombie, I summon out, Gaia Knight, Force of Earth, DoomKaiser Dragon, Ally of Justice Catastor, and Zombie Master!

The four monsters burst from the ground all in zombie like state. Nazo's eyes widened and he turned and started to run.

"Battle! I attack your Blackwing-Zephros with my DoomKaiser Dragon/ Assault mode, Miasma of Destruction!

From the skull on its chest, the dragon let loose an intense attack that destroyed the monster instantly, dropping Nazo down to 2500 lp. Nazo looked desperately for an action card.

There were a few flame bubbles around, but they were too far away. The only thing relatively close was a water rise that connected to a floating island.

"I attack directly with Gaia Knight, Force of Earth!"

"_I can't believe I am going to do this!"_

Nazo ran into the water and was shot up, surprisingly fast, to the floating island. He landed and snatched the action card on the ground.

"Action Magic, Great Escape! I instantly end the battle phase!"

The horseman rounded back and stopped beside Yumego's other monsters.

Yumego clapped, "Nice! I thought I had you there, well played, well then Turn End!"

The monsters that were revived from DoomKaiser Dragon/ Assault Mode's effect exploded leaving his field with only one monster.

Nazo breathed heavily, "Draw!"

Nazo 2500 Cards: 4

Yumego 3500 Cards: 1

Nazo smiled, "Finally! I activate my Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your zombie world!"

The card created winds that tore through the card above Yumego, destroying it.

"Now that all my monsters are back to dragon and winged beast types, I can play my Dragunity Dux and equip him with Phalanx from the grave! I special summon Phalanx and then synchro climb to level 8! Come on out, Scrap Dragon!"

The purple, junk-infused dragon descended in front of Nazo. Nazo jumped on his dragon and it glided down smoothly, until it reached solid ground. Nazo jumped off and turned to face Yumego.

"I activate Scrap Dragon's effect! I destroy my Fiendish Chain and your DoomKaiser Dragon/ Assault Mode! Scrap Annihilator!"

The trap card became yellow bits and was absorbed into Scrap Dragon, who fired it and destroyed the opposing dragon.

"The effect of DoomKaiser Dragon/ Assault Mode activates! I can summon out one "DoomKaiser Dragon, from my grave!"

The original dead –like dragon appeared on the field. Yumego scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Unfortunately, there are no zombie monsters in your grave, and so I can't revive anything."

Nazo held out his hand, "Battle, Scrap Dragon attacks DoomKaiser Dragon, Scrap Breath!"

Yumego jumped on his respective dragon, "DoomKaiser!" The dragon roared in response and took flight away from Nazo. Yumego reached out and grabbed a card from a flame bubble and activated it, "Action magic, Avoid!"

The attack deviated off course and hit a floating island.

Nazo smiled, _"I really should try to cooperate with my monsters more."_

Yumego's monster swung around and landed, allowing Yumego to get off.

Nazo shrugged, "Turn end."

Yumego gave a grin, "My turn! Draw!"

Nazo 2500 Cards: 2

Yumego 3500 Cards: 2

Yumego looked over his hand and nodded before looking up, "Well it has been fun Nazo, but forgive me for getting serious."

Nazo raised an eyebrow and Yumego plucked a card from his hand, "I activate the effect of Plaugespreader zombie in grave, I return one to the top of my deck, to special summon itself from grave, but when it leaves the field, it is banished."

The zombie appeared on the field with a moan. Yumego held his hand forward, "I am tuning my level 2 Plaugespreader Zombie with my level 6 DoomKaiser Dragon."

The zombie became two green rings and enveloped the dragon, turning it into 6 stars which realigned into a straight line.

"Rend, Strike, Destroy! The dragon of immortality will reign on! Come forth and put an end to all who dare oppose you! Come forth, Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons!

A large two head dragon appeared, covered in thick purple armor. Yumego sighed, "I usually don't like using this guy… really takes the fun out of a duel. Let me tell you its effects. It cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effect. Also anytime I take damage from attacks involving this card, or any effect damage from my opponent's card effect, this card gains that much attack."

Nazo hesitantly took a step back.

Yumego pointed at Nazo, "Battle, I attack Scrap Dragon with Beelze, Chaos Dark Burning!"

The dragon roared and fired black flames at Scrap Dragon destroying it and inflicting 200 points of damage.

Yumego took one card from his hand and set it, "I set one card, Turn End."

Nazo moved his hand to his deck, "D… Draw!"

Nazo 2300 Cards: 3

Yumego 3500 Cards: 1

Nazo ground his teeth, _"What can I do? I can't attack over it with Vajrayana… I already used my fiendish chain on DoomKaiser…. Come on think!"_

Realization dawned on Nazo and he took a deep breath to calm himself. Yumego noticed his change of attitude, "You think of something Nazo?"

Nazo nodded, "I have a rough idea. I start off by playing out Dragunity Dux! His effect allows me to equip Dragunity Phalanx to himself." The eagle clothed man appeared and grabbed the knife presented to him.

"Phalanx effect! I can special summon him from the spell and trap zone."

Dux threw the knife beside him and the small dragon appeared.

"Synchro summon! I tune my Phalanx with my Dux to summon out Dragunity Knight- Vajrayana! Its effect equips Phalanx to itself."

The red dragon appeared and grabbed the knife. Nazo manually summoned out the small dragon once again.

"I tribute Dragunity Phalanx to summon out Dragunity Arma Mystletainn. Then I bring Phalanx back to the field in conjunction with both Mystletainn's and Phalanx's effects."

The yellow dragon with a sword appeared and the small dragon appeared soon after.

"Now I activate the effect of Blackwing Zephyros in grave, I return my Mystletainn to hand to special summon out Zephyros for a cost of 400 life points."

The yellow dragon disappeared and the black-winged man appeared.

"I tune my Phalanx with my Zephyros to summon out Dragunity Knight- Gae Dearg!"

The blue and red dragon appeared on the field with a roar.

Nazo breathed in, "I construct the overlay network! I am overlaying my level 6 Gae Dearg with my level 6 Vajrayana! XYZ Summon! Come forth Constellar Ptolemy M7!"

The portal at Nazo's feet sucked in the two monsters and glowed before the mechanical monster rose out slowly.

Nazo clenched his fist, "Ptolemy effect, I can detach one unit to send on monster on the field or in the grave back to the hand, I target Beelze! Constellar Wake!"

The monster absorbed one material let out a pulsing wave aimed at Beelze. Yumego frowned and jumped onto his own dragon, ran up its neck to the head and jumped to grab an action card, "Action magic, Fog of Illusion! My monster is unaffected by monster effects for the remainder of the turn."

A fog seemed to settle over Yumego's Dragon. The pulse hit the dragon, but nothing happened.

Nazo laughed and grinned, "Quick thinking there! But I still have one overlay unit, so I will get you next turn!"

Yumego gave him a thumbs up, "Thanks, but will your monster be around for your next turn?"

Nazo shrugged, "I will try my best to make that happen. Turn end!"

With those words Nazo turned and started to run, jumping on his monster's back and starting to fly off.

Yumego smiled, "My turn, Draw!"

Nazo 1900 Cards: 2

Yumego 3500 Cards: 2

Yumego smiled, "Battle! I attack your Ptolemy with my Beelze, Chaos Dark Burning!"

The dragon breathed in before firing black fire at Ptolemy. Nazo jumped and landed on a floating island and retrieved a card, "Action Magic, Miracle! My monster cannot be destroyed by battle and all battle damage is halved!"

The fire struck Ptolemy and an explosion occurred, but when the smoke cleared the monster still stood.

Yumego nodded, "I figured as much, I set one card and end my turn."

Nazo breathed out, "My turn, Draw!"

Nazo 1750 Cards: 3

Yumego 3500 Cards: 1

Yumego called out while tapping his duel disk, "During your standby phase I activate my facedown! Forbidden Dress! My monster loses 600 attack, but can no longer be targeted or destroyed by card effects."

Nazo frowned, "Guess I have to wait until next turn, Battle! Constellar Ptolemy M7 will attack Beelze!

The monster moved forward and struck Beelze, inflicting 300 points of damage. A blue light shone around Beelze signifying the attack increase of 300 points

Nazo nodded, "I end my turn!"

Yumego nodded, "The effect of forbidden Dress ends and my dragon gains 600 points! Meaning my dragon is now at 3300! Alright, My turn! Draw!"

Nazo 1750 Cards: 3

Yumego 3200 Cards: 2

Nazo ran the opposite direction, looking for an action card, just one more turn and he would be able to take Yumego down.

Yumego smiled at Nazo's determination. Most people would have given up by now; Beelze was a fearsome monster that left little openings.

"Beelze!" Yumego yelled as he jumped on to the dragon. The monster responded by roaring and connecting of his head to a floating island, which Yumego ran up to.

"Battle! Beelze will attack your Constellar Ptolemy M7! Chaos Dark Burning!"

Nazo swiped and action card played it, "Action magic! Avoid!" The card appeared above Nazo.

"Action magic, No Action!"

Nazo's eyes widened as the card above him shattered, and the fire hit and destroyed Constellar Ptolemy M7.

Yumego jumped onto his dragon and slid down his neck before jumping onto the ground. "Turn end."

Nazo blankly started ahead, he no longer knew if he had anything to stop Beelze, if he did it would have to be the next card or he was done. He could mutely hear Nico smiley talking about the pinch Nazo was in.

Nazo closed his eyes as his hand hung limply at his side. He was finished.

"Nazo, don't give up!"  
Both players looked to the side to see Pendulum Duelist, Yuya Sakaki yelling from the sidelines with all the other You Show Duel School.

"Nazo, show him how much you have learned at our school!" Yuzu called out.

The three junior duelists yelled out encouragement as well.

"Don't give up! HOT BLOODED!" yelled Shuzo and he clenched his fists and screamed towards the sky.

Nazo gained a small smile before laughing; he was truly touched that his comrades, his friends had that much faith in him that he could pull through this situation, no matter how impossible it seemed.

Yumego gave a small smile after he saw Nazo's mood do a 180.

Nazo waved at the group, "Thank you everyone! I won't give up until the last card is drawn!"

He turned back towards Yumego and gave a grin, "I almost gave up there, but you are right, it does not matter if you win or lose, all depends on whether or not you can enjoy yourself!"

-§-

Yumego's eyes widened as Nazo closed his eyes and took a deep breath and he reached for his deck. It might have been a trick of the light, the action field was 'Arena of Illusions' after all, because a golden glow surrounded Nazo as he gripped his top card. Nazo's eyes opened and he spoke in a voice that was his own, but held a strange sort of confidence that the boy had never displayed before. "_**DRAW!**_" With the swing of his arm, the golden glow faded as quickly as it had come about, leaving Yumego to wonder if it was there to begin with.

-§-

Nazo 1150 Cards: 4

Yumego 3200 Cards: 2

Nazo looked down at the card he had drawn and gave a soft smile. "I activate my Field Spell Card, Dragon ravine!"

A light shone from his duel disk. _Duel disk 101789 has connected to solid vision machine, making appropriate changes._ The place where Nazo was standing glowed and light spread out, encompassing the area around him, turning it into a ravine with dragons flying far overhead.

"I activate the effect of Dragon Ravine! I discard one card to get one level 4 or lower Dragunity monster card from the deck to my hand! I get Dragunity Dux!"

Nazo discarded his Cards of Consonance and retrieved the card from the deck. "I play Dragunity Dux! I equip and with Phalanx who I bring out."

The winged man appeared and threw the knife to the ground transforming it to Phalanx.

"I send Phalanx to grave to summon out Dragunity Arma Mystletainn, then use his effect to equip Dragunity Phalanx to him, who is again special summoned out!"

The small dragon transformed back into the knife and the large yellow dragon appeared in its place before grabbing the knife and throwing it to the ground, re-summoning Phalanx.

Nazo pointed at Phalanx, "I tune my level 2 Phalanx with my level 4 Dux, Synchro Summon! Come forth! Dragunity Knight-Vajrayana! He equips himself with Phalanx who is again summoned out!"

The Red Dragon appeared and roared which was soon joined by the smaller roar of Phalanx

"I am constructing the overlay network! I overlay my level 6 Vajrayana, with my level 6 Mystletainn! XYZ summon! Come on out, Rank 6, Hieratic Dragon King of Atum!

The two monsters turned in to green light and were sucked into a portal at Nazo's feet. The golden armored dragon slowly rose up from the portal, two white lights rotating around it.

"I use the effect of Atum! I can detach one overlay unit to special summon one dragon monster from my deck to the field, but its attack and defense become zero! I summon out Dragunity Aklys!"

The red dragon appeared in a small roar. Nazo held his hand, "I am once again constructing the overlay network! I overlay my level 2 Phalanx with my Level 2 Aklys! XYZ summon! Come on out! Rank 2, Dragunity Core!

Out of the portal came out a spherical object. By first glance, it was a large green crystal, with two black overlay units floating around it.

Yumego raised an eyebrow, he had never heard of this card before, and apparently Nico Smiley had not either, judging from his announcements to the audience.

Meanwhile, Akaba Reiji stood in the control room watching intently.

Nazo smiled, "I can do this! My monster is an XYZ tuner; I tune my Rank 2 Dragunity Core with my Rank 6 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum! XYZ Synchro Summon!"

The monster broke into two red rings and encircled the golden armored dragon, which disappeared in favor of 6 black stars.

Nazo breathing before saying, "When Black Stars align, a new power is created! Come and rend through space-time to create a path to the next generation! XYZ Synchro! Rank 8! Dragunity Knight-Origin!"

As the light faded that pitch black dragon armored dragon with gold and green highlights appeared. The wings seemed to be made of fire itself as they flared out behind the monster. It carried a small black trident-like knife that had a red jewel embedded on the hilt. A massive black and gold sword was gripped in its other hand, with another jewel near the golden hilt.

The Dragon roared and breathed out some fire. Two green overlay materials surrounded it. Yumego's eyes were wide at the sight of the monster, "What? What is that thing?" Yumego's eyes flicked downward towards his duel disk, The monster was an XYZ synchro, Rank 8, 3500 attack and 3200 defense.

Nazo spoke, "To create a XYZ synchro monster, it is very similar to a synchro summon, except with ranks instead of levels. The two monsters used to XYZ synchro summon the XYZ synchro monster become the overlay units of the new monster. Any XYZ materials that were attached to the previous XYZ monsters are sent to the grave."

Yumego nodded, "I see, quite the interesting monster you have there… wonder why I have never heard of it."

Nazo gave a sheepish smile, "This is the first recorded occurrence of this summon to happen, congrats, you will be the first ever to fight a XYZ synchro monster."

Yumego grinned, "Alright, sounds good, let's see if I will be the first recorded person to destroy it too."

Nazo shook his head, "Sorry, it ends here. I first activate the effect of Dragunity Core! If this card is used as a XYZ material the monster summoned gains an additional effect: When this card is summoned, negate all other effects on the field. Negation Wave!"

The black dragon roared sending out a shock wave with itself as the epicenter. Beelze roared as an electric shock ran across it.

"Now both my dragon ravine and your Beelze have their effects negated, meaning your monster is back down to 3000 attack. Now I activate the effect of Dragunity Knight-Origin, I detach 2 XYZ materials, no other card effects, except this card's, can be activated for the remainder of this turn. Dragon Sanctuary!"

A large circle formed around both the players and glowed red.

Nazo shouted, "Battle! Dragunity Knight-Origin attacks Beelze! Dragon Impulse Assault!"

The black dragon launched forward stabbed Beelze with its knife causing it explode, inflicting 500 points of damage to Yumego.

Nazo breathed out, "When Dragunity Knight-Origin destroys a monster by battle, he can attack a second time in a row. Finish this!"

The dragon brandished its sword and swung, slashing at Yumego, taking out the rest of his life points.

The images faded as a sign above both participants showed Nazo's face with a WIN printed on the bottom.

The crowds went wild. The cheers were deafening as people shouted praise, exclaimed in excitement, and roared in approval. Nazo and Yumego looked around a bit at the audience before approaching each other and once again shaking hands.

Yumego laughed, "This is what I wanted my first duel, people cheering, being excited, but I guess you stole the show."

Nazo scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Sorry about that…"

Yumego waved away his concern, "Don't mind me, here take this."

Nazo blinked in confusion as he was handed a white card, "Beelze? Why?"

Yumego gave him a thumbs up, "proof that you have defeated me, the best of all Smile Duel School, and proof that we are friends."

Nazo gave a grin, before sharing in a High-Five with the other boy.

As Nazo approached the exit of the arena he was met by an odd scene. The entire You Show Duel School staring at one boy who was looking directly at him. Akaba Reiji waited near the gate. Nazo walked up to him.

Akaba Reiji spoke, "So, how did you do it?"

Nazo tapped his duel pad causing it to open the extra deck slot, and retrieved two cards. One was black, the other, ashen gray. He closed the slot while saying, "After all my friends encouraged me, I believed in myself, more so than I have ever before, I don't know if it was the tense situation, or another factor, but I do know this. The confidence I felt was the belief that I could overcome any situation, no matter how perilous or impossible. It was the feeling when I first dueled, the idea that winning and losing did not matter in the slightest, just the confidence to move on, and draw the next card until the duel is over."

Nazo extended his hand out, offering the two cards to Reiji, "I assume you need to do more tests?"

Reiji shook his head, "No, everything was accounted for except for the actual summon. You may keep those cards, as well as a few more as we develop them. You have opened the way to our future, we of LDS are thankful. All information you have now is declassified since you were able to successfully XYZ synchro."

With that, Akaba Reiji bid Nazo farewell with a wave and walked off. Nazo turned to the others with a smile, "Thanks for cheering for me, you guys helped me pull through."

The group looked at him, before they all cheered.

"But Nazo," stated Yuya as they walked back to the van, "Why do you have those cards and what does LDS have to do with it?"

"Yeah! And why didn't you tell us you had something so cool?" asked Ayu as she ran to catch up to Nazo's side.

Nazo sighed, "For your question Ayu, you heard it yourself from Akaba Reiji, all I knew was classified information until I was successful in that summon. Basically, I was prohibited from telling anyone about it, until now."

Nazo turned to Yuya, "As for your question Yuya, let's wait till we get back to the duel school, and away from prying eyes and ears." Nazo glanced behind him. The groups followed his gaze and were surprised to find some people following them.

Nazo nodded to everyone else, and the entire group ran into the small van and drove away back to the duel school.

-§-

Well there you have it. The idea Akaba Reiji planned for 3 years to create as a weapon to fight against the academia invasion. I am sure he has made something in the anime as well, at least, I hope he has, either way, during the 3 years that of prep time, at least in this alternate universe, Akaba Reiji created XYZ synchro. That does not mean it is the ONLY thing he created, considering they haven't revealed anything in the anime yet.

The Smile Duel School actually exists. The opponent that Futoshi verses first is from this school.

Dragunity Core [XYZ monster] rank 2, tuner, Dark, dragon type, Atk 1000 Def 800

Requires 2 level 2 dragon type monsters.

Effect: you can detach 2 materials from this monster to add 1 level 8 or lower dragon type monster or Dragunity monster from your deck to your hand.

When this card is an XYZ unit, the monster with this XYZ unit gains this additional effect

\- When this card is Summoned, negate all other effects on the field

Dragunity Knight-Origin [Synchro XYZ monster] Dragon type, Wind, Rank 8, Atk 3500 Def 3200

Requires 1 XYZ dragon-tuner and 1 or more XYZ non-tuner monsters. The monsters used to Synchro summon this monster become its XYZ materials. The XYZ materials that were attached to the monsters used to XYZ Synchro summon this monster are sent to the grave.

Effect: If this card attacks and destroys a monster during this battle phase, it can attack a second time in a row. You may detatch 2 XYZ materials to activate this effect: The opponent may not activate cards or effects for the rest of this turn.

I am positive that everyone that reads this knows that these two cards are of my own creation. As for how unfair these cards are, well you can be the judge of that. Some of you may think that the XYZ synchro is WAY to OP for something so easy to summon. Technically all Nazo needs is 3 monsters and he can summon it out. I based this effect off of what I was able to actual do when I played Dragunity IRL. Sometimes it is possible to play out all your monsters in a single turn and your opponent has no defense, but that usually doesn't happen. Most of the time, I had to use trap stun to successfully summon out everything.

Basically, what I am saying is that it is more possible to stop this summon rather than successfully summon it. Breakthrough skill, effect vieler, and fiendish chain work wonders against this whole thing.

I should make a note stating that now that this new thing is open to Nazo, it does not mean he will use it every chapter. There is no need to play an ace when a two will do.

If you enjoyed it, please leave a review. If you disliked it, tell me how I could do better. If card count or rulings were off, give a review or shoot me a PM.

Thank you to Shimmering-Sky for reviewing chapter 7. Also thank you to everyone who has added this story to their favorites list. All of the support is greatly appreciated.


	9. Miami Championships Begin!

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

Nazo sat in the break room of the You Show Duel School. It was near night now and the group had gathered to hear the finishing news of the Second Preliminary Rounds of the Miami Championship. The announcer on the television announced that Yuzu, Yuya, and Nazo would all be participating in the next round of the Miami Championship. Yuya scratched his head in embarrassment as the announcer talked adamantly about the 2 new summoning methods that had been invented by the two pioneers that resided in the You Show Duel School. Nazo only shook his head, "I can't blame them for thinking that I invented the XYZ Synchro summon, I was the first to use it… but they are wrong, technically LDS invented it."

The entire group turned to him. Yuya tilted his head, "You said you would explain after we got back, so what does XYZ Synchro Summoning have to do with LDS? Is that why Akaba Reiji was so interested?"

Nazo nodded, "Let me start from the beginning. About year prior to the start of the Miami Championships, I, as well as many others, was asked to take part in an experiment that would, in Akaba Reiji's words, 'create a new summoning method to better the world around us. To help us grow, learn, and achieve a brighter and better tomorrow.'"

Yuya snapped his fingers, "Wait why were you chosen to take part?"

Nazo chuckled, "My father is a huge contributor to LDS, and I have taken both Synchro and XYZ courses. While I was not a student there, I was known by the staff, and through them, Akaba Reiji. We had met a few times prior. Since I knew both summoning methods, I was a prime choice."

Shuzo interrupted, "You mean for…?"

Nazo nodded, "Yes, XYZ Synchro. Akaba Reiji had formed the idea of XYZ Synchro long before he gathered all the participants for this experiment. Every day, after classes where over, we dueled the other participants over and over. Our wins and losses were recorded as well as energy levels when we XYZ summoned or Synchro summoned."

Yuzu cocked her head to the side while raising an eyebrow, "Energy levels?"

Nazo shrugged, "I couldn't tell you, I once was able to get Akaba Reiji to explain it to me, but most of it went over my head. Apparently when a summon is performed, it gives off an energy reading, as for telling them apart or how they differentiate between high and low readings, I do not know."

Tatsuya frowned, "So all you did was duel others while readings were taken, sounds harsh."

Nazo held out his hands while shaking his head, "I guess I explained that a bit blandly, while that is all we did, it does not mean it was poor conditions. This is LDS, we had access to a buffet when we were not dueling, we chatted with the other people we were not facing, all in all it was a pretty fun time. There was also huge excitement in the air, we were the people chosen to try out this new method, the first of the city, and eventually the world, to execute something that nobody had even seen before."

Ayu nodded in understanding, "So what happened in the end? Why do you have those cards?"

Nazo continued, "After around 8 months, some of the test cards were finally developed for the group to try out. Most of the cards were created to be generic, usable for almost all decks. I believe two special sets were created, one for myself, due to my father's will, and one for Reiji."

Yuya seemed to frown at the mention of Reiji, "So a lot of people have these cards?"

Nazo shook his head sadly, "What met the team was catastrophic failure. Of course it varied, for some people, apparently their 'energy levels' were not high enough to summon out a XYZ tuner, and they failed there, almost everyone else got out an XYZ tuner, but could not get the animation to work to initiate the XYZ synchro. Looking back on it, it couldn't be helped, only Reiji and myself both know how to XYZ and synchro summon. When I attempted, my XYZ tuner broke into red rings and surrounded the monster before an error occurred, the same happened with Akaba Reiji. It was determined the test was a failure. Since I was one of the closest people to achieve the summon, and since my dad had close contact with me and they could easily find out if I was successful in any attempt, they gave me the cards for further use. All the rest is history; you witnessed the first true XYZ Synchro."

The group nodded in understanding. Nazo yawned and stretched, "Well it is getting late and tomorrow is the next part of the Miami Championships, we all really should be heading to bed."

Ayu unconsciously let out a yawn, as well as Futoshi, prompting Shuzo and Yoko to usher the three kids into another room. Since the championships were to start early tomorrow, all the children had told their parents that they would sleep over at the duel school that night. Nazo's father had congratulated him on a job well done with his summon. As Nazo unfolded the sleeping bag, he felt a tapping on his shoulder causing him to turn, Yuya faced him with a serious look, "We need to talk."

Nazo raised an eyebrow and fully tuned to face Yuya, soon the three junior-youth duelists were sitting in a circle.

Nazo crossed his arms, "So what your telling me is… there are multiple copies of both of you from different dimensions, and the dimensions have only access to one type of summon, whether it be Fusion, Synchro, or XYZ. Furthermore, the XYZ dimension was taken over and destroyed by the Fusion dimension."

Yuzu nodded, "From what Yuya told me the fusion dimension also has people in the Synchro dimension, they called themselves, 'Yugo.'"

Nazo frowned, "That seems kinda… Never mind, either way, why are people jumping to different dimensions?"

Yuya answered, "I don't know."

Nazo sighed, "Guess you wouldn't know all the answers, but now that I think about it, this does explain what Korosaki Shun was talking about."

Yuya nodded, "yeah, he is from the XYZ dimension."

As Nazo thought about everything that he had been told, something stood out, "What does that make Sora?"

Yuya's fist tightened, "Sora is still our friend, and nothing will change that."

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "how can you be so sure?"

Yuya shook his head, "The time that I had dueled him, he expressed his true self, there is still a fun loving boy inside him, I know it."

Nazo sighed, "Alright, say what you will, I will not argue that point, but I sure hope you know what you are doing if you meet him again."

Yuya nodded, to which Nazo shrugged, putting an end to that conversation. Nazo stretched his arms above his head, "Well, let's hit the sack, the three of us need to be in top condition tomorrow."

Yuzu nodded, and the three of them took respective positions in the room, Yuzu on the couch, Nazo and Yuya on the floor.

As his consciousness faded in and out, Nazo wondered what tomorrow would bring.

-§-

Nazo stood next to Yuya in the rather large line in the center of the duel field. A grand total of 31 participants stood side by side. Nazo glanced to either side. Most looked confident, some looked nervous. Yuya frowned, "Korosaki is not here…"

Nazo shrugged, "Here or not, we need to concentrate."

Nazo had researched the next round. According to previous years, they would partner up with one of the other participants and fight in joint duels. It was an interesting part of the Miami Championships, since you could potentially get a non-cooperative partner and could ruin the entire Championships for both of you, but it also proved that you had skill if you could get though such a trial. That is why it came as a massive surprise when it was decided that it would be a massive battle royal would be taking place instead. The rules were as followed: At noon the battle royal would start, participants needed to collect two pendulum cards that were scattered around the area. Once they got 2 pendulum cards, they could fight other duelists, betting their newfound pendulum cards for the ante rule. Once you take part in a duel, you no longer can pick up Pendulum cards. When you lose all your pendulum cards, the participant must return to the main stadium as not to interfere with any of the other participants. Any and all field spells activated will not affect the solid vision machines around the area.

As the time counted down, Nazo activated his duel disk and waited as the section of the stands rose in front of everyone. "ACTION DUEL!"

As soon as these words were screamed, the group rushed forward and exited the arena. Nazo waved goodbye to Yuya and Yuzu and ran in the other direction. _"Now where to find those Pendulum Cards…"_ After looking for quite a while, the scene around them changed, meaning that the action field Wonder Quartet had finally taken effect. Nazo swiped a card nearby and frowned, "Scale 1 Red dragon huh?" Nazo placed the card in his deck and kept searching, crossing zones to the artic area.

"Gah, I hate the cold," muttered Nazo as he trudged through snow. He spotted a card with one edge in the ice. Nazo swiped it and held it out, "Scale 8, White Wyvern, that makes two."

"Really now?"

Nazo turned to find a person standing a few feet away smirking. Nazo raised an eyebrow, "Can I help you?"

The boy pointed at him, "We each have 2 pendulum cards, I, Takushi Nadato, challenge you to a duel!"

Nazo sighed, "Fine! I accept your challenge! Duel!

Nazo 4000 Cards 5

Takushi 4000 Cards 5

Nazo smiled, "I'll start! I play out Dragon Ravine!"

The card appeared above Nazo in a flash.

"I discard Dragunity Phalanx to get Dragunity Dux to hand, which I summon out!"

The eagle garbed man appeared. Thought its effect, he equipped Phalanx to himself before summoning it out.

"I synchro climb to level 8! Come on out Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The white dragon took flight and roared.

"I set two cards and end my turn!"

Takushi smirked, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 1

Takushi 4000 Cards: 6

"I activate Foolish Burial, and I send Inzektor hornet to grave!"

The card was removed from the deck and slotted into the grave.

"I now play out Inzektor Dragonfly!"

A red armored warrior appeared.

"I equip hornet to Dragonfly, then activate hornet's effect! I can de-equip hornet to destroy one card on the field, I choose Dragon Ravine!

Nazo shook his head, "You think I would let you? I activate Stardust Spark's effect! Once per turn, I can select face-up card on my side of the field, and I can negate its destruction once, I choose Dragon Ravine!"

The dragon roared and a barrier was created around the card above Nazo. Dragonfly shot a beam at the card, but the barrier blocked it.

Takushi shrugged, "Doesn't matter! Dragonfly effect! When something equipped to Dragonfly goes to the grave, I can special summon out one Inzektor monster to the field! I choose Inzektor Centipede!"

A brown armored warrior appeared. Takushi held out his hand, "Centipede effect attaches Hornet once more!"

Nazo tapped his duel disk, "Trap Card open! Fiendish Chain!"

Steel chains wrapped around the bug warrior, preventing it from moving.

"I chain Forbidden Lance! My monster is unaffected by other spell and trap cards this turn, but loses 800 attack!"

A golden lance slammed behind Centipede and emitted a bright light, erasing the chains around centipede.

The hornet was then successfully equipped to the brown armored warrior. "I once again activate the effect of hornet! I can de-equip it to destroy something on the field, I destroy the fiendish chain!"

The card shattered into blue shards. Takushi clenched his fist, "I activate the effect of Centipede, I can add one Inzektor Card to my hand, I choose Inzektor Giga Mantis!"

The card was ejected from the deck and Takushi grabbed it before slotting two cards into his duel disk.

"I activate both effects of Giga Mantis and Inzektor Sword – Zektkaliber. I equip both to Dragonfly, making his attack go up to 3200!" The monster was enveloped by a harsh blue aura and its attack points rose drastically.

"Battle! I attack your Stardust Spark Dragon with my Dragonfly! Inzektor Pulse!"

The red armored warrior fired its cannon and destroyed Nazo's dragon, inflicting 700 points of damage.

"Centipede attacks directly!"

The other monster ran forward and slashed Nazo, causing his life points to stop at 2500.

"I set two cards and end my turn!"

Nazo coughed, "Draw!"

Nazo 2500 Cards: 2

Takushi 4000: Cards: 1

Takushi tapped his duel disk, "Trap Card Open! Threatening Roar! You cannot declare an attack this turn!"

Nazo snorted, "Trap card open! Trap Stun! The effects of Traps are negated for this turn!"

The trap on Takushi's side was covered in electricity before fading.

Nazo held up his hand, "I activate Dragon Ravine! I discard one card to get Dux! I summon him out and synchro climb to 8 once more! Come on out! Scrap Dragon!"

The large purple dragon appeared with a roar. Nazo smirked and looked up, "Now I…. wait….Oi!"

His opponent was currently booking it away from him. It was obvious that he had failed to get out his non-attacking move, so therefore he was searching for an action card.

Nazo scowled, "Scrap Dragon!" Nazo jumped on his dragon who took after the boy at a blinding pace.

Nazo held out his hand, "You won't get away! Battle! Scrap Dragon will attack your Centipede! Scrap Breath!"

The dragon breathed in before firing its signature attack at the armored monster, which was destroyed.

"Main Phase 2! I activate Scrap Dragon's Effect! I can destroy one card on my side of the field to destroy one card on your side! I target my dragon ravine and your dragonfly! Scrap Annihilator!"

The field card broke apart and was absorbed by Scrap Dragon, who fired a beam and destroyed Inzektor Dragonfly.

"Inzektor Sword – Zektkaliber effect! I can choose one Inzektor Card from my grave and add it to hand! I choose Inzektor Dragonfly!"

The card was added to his hand. Nazo frowned, "I set one card and…. Look Out!"

The boy turned and crashed into a girl wearing a fur coat, Nazo glided down on his dragon and landed nearby. It seems a duel between this girl and Gongenzaka had been going on and they had interrupted it. A scream caused Nazo to look and see Yuzu sliding down the cliff. She also landed on Olga, before hurriedly getting off and running to Gongenzaka.

_Battle Royal Mode…. Standby.. TAG DUEL._

Nazo glanced down at his duel disk, it seemed it was calculating the teams as well as the order of turns.

_TAG DUEL confirmed, Contestants Gongenzaka, Yuzu, and Nazo VS Olga, Halil, and Takushi. _

Nazo smirked and he ran to Gongenzaka's side of the field, "Huh, this is really convenient."

Yuzu gave a small laugh, "You could say that."

Gongenzaka gave a firm nod, "let's take them down!"

The group yelled out in affirmation. Nazo glanced at their opponents, "Just a side note, my opponent uses Inzektor, but fortunately, they need turns to actually pull off their moves, eliminate him before his turn comes around."

"Oi! Don't tell them to aim for me!" Came the indignant yell from the other side.

_DUEL ORDER_

_Olga_

_Gongenzaka_

_Yuzu,_

_Halil_

_Takushi_

_Nazo_

Nazo sighed, "of course my turn is last, I am counting on you two!"

Olga frowned, "Draw!"

Gongenzaka 2400 Cards: 2

Yuzu: 800 Cards: 3+ 1 Action.

Nazo 2500 Cards: 0

Olga 2600 Cards: 2

Halil 4000 Cards: 0

Takushi 2800 Cards: 1

I synchro summon my Artic Beast- Blizzard wolf with my Artic Beast-Polar Penguin! Synchro Summon! Come forth level 7! Artic Beast- Iceberg Narwhal!"

The ice beast with the head of a whale came forth.

"I attack Yuzu directly!"

Yuzu acted, "I activate the action magic, Blind Blizzard! I instantly end the battle phase!"

Olga laughed, "The effect of Iceberg Narwhal negates and destroys all spell and trap cards activated when this card attacks!"

The beast smashed though the action magic.

"I activate the effect of SuperHeavy Samurai Blowtorch!"

Gongenzaka acted and saved Yuzu from destruction.

Olga clicked her tongue, "Turn End."

Gongenzaka smirked, "Draw!"

Gongenzaka 200 Cards: 3

Yuzu 800 Cards: 3

Nazo 2500 Cards: 0

Olga 2600 Cards: 2

Halil 4000 Cards: 0

Takushi 2800 Cards: 1

Gongenzaka did an impressive series of moves and brought out the synchro monster, SuperHeavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji, which destroyed all opponent's magic and trap cards.

Halil sighed, "When continuous trap, Magic-absorbing lamp is destroy, the card is returned to the original owner." He passed the card back to Yuzu

"My monster can attack while in defense position! Battle! SuperHeavy Samurai Ogre Shutendoji attack Takushi Directly!"

The monster swung his club and struck Takushi, inflicting a massive 2500 points of damage to him.

"Turn end."

Yuzu smiled, "My turn Draw!"

Gongenzaka 200 Cards: 0

Yuzu 800 Cards: 5

Nazo 2500 Cards: 0

Olga 2600 Cards: 2

Halil 4000 Cards: 0

Takushi 300 Cards: 1

"With my already set White butterfly, and my Scale 9 white flower, I set my pendulum scale!"

Nazo watched as the two monsters rose up in white columns of light with a 3 and 9 below their respective monsters.

"Pendulum Summon! I bring out Soprano the Melodious Songstress and Mozarta the Melodious Maestra! When Soprano is used as a fusion material, I can fuse without a fusion spell card! I fuse my monsters to create Bloom Diva the Melodious Muse!"

The small woman appeared in front of Yuzu.  
"Battle! I attack Artic Beast- Iceberg Narwhal with Bloom Diva! I activate quick-play magic, pianissimo, which lowers Bloom Diva's attack to 100! Her effect activates and it inflicts you with damage equal to the difference of the attack between our monsters as well as destroys your monster! Reflect Shout!

The monster was destroyed, causing Olga to lose all her life points.

Yuzu smiled, "I activate the quick-spell card, De-Fusion! I bring back Soprano the Melodious Songstress and Mozarta the Melodious Maestra! Now Soprano attack Takushi Directly!

The monster sent a sound wave at the boy, reducing his LP to 0.

Nazo clenched his fist in victory, "Nicely done Yuzu!"

Yuzu nodded before turning to her original opponent, "I attack your Fire Jinn with my Mozarta!"

The monster was destroyed, but Halil smiled, "Effect of Fire Jinn! I can tribute one lamp monster on my side of the field to destroy the monster that destroyed fire jinn and if I do, inflict 600 points of damage!"

The prodigy songstress was destroyed, and Yuzu took 600 points of damage.

Yuzu grit her teeth, "turn end…"

Halil smiled, "my turn, Draw!"

Gongenzaka 200 Cards: 0

Yuzu 200 Cards: 0

Nazo 2500 Cards: 0

Olga -out

Halil 3800 Cards: 1

Takushi –out

Halil held out his one card, "I can at least take you out Yuzu! I summon out La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp! Battle, I attack Soprano!"

Nazo tapped his due disk, "You think I would let you? Trap card Open! Defense Draw! The battle damage received becomes 0 and I draw one card!"

The monster was destroyed but no damage was taken. Yuzu nodded in appreciation.

Nazo nodded back, "Time to end this! My move! Draw!"

Gongenzaka 200 Cards: 0

Yuzu 200 Cards: 0

Nazo 2500 Cards: 2

Olga -out

Halil 3800 Cards: 0

Takushi –out

Nazo held out a card, "I summon out Dragunity Aklys!" The small red dragon gave a shrill cry as it came to the field.

Nazo slotted the other card into his duel disk, "I set one card and activate scrap dragon's effect! I destroy my set card and your monster! Scrap Annihilator!"

The dragon absorbed the card and fired a beam destroying La jinn.

"Battle! I attack directly with both Scrap dragon and Aklys!"

Both dragons flew forward and hit Halil ending the duel.

The three friends walked up to each other to share a high five, before walking to their fallen opponents.

Nazo held out his hand and helped up his original opponent, "That was a good fight, but you made the mistake of running… that was your downfall."

Takushi scratched the back of his head, "yeah… I was just looking for an action card… Oh well, here, take this pendulum card."

Nazo accepted the card. Yuzu and Gongenzaka just finished getting their cards as well.

Nazo walked up to them, "So where are you guys headed now?

Yuzu shivered, "the magma zone… I need to warm up a bit…"

Gongenzaka crossed his arms, "I am heading towards the Jungle Zone."

Nazo nodded, "Alright, then I won't get in either of your ways, I will head to the Ruin zone, say hi to Yuya if you see him."

With a wave, Nazo ran towards the ruins zone, wondering what exciting duel was to happen next.

-§-

Well, by the looks of things, it was a shorter chapter with a shorter duel. This chapter mainly had more backstory than the actual main story. I also don't like it because it borrowed heavily from the actual anime, the duel that took place basically was the same, except there were 2 extra duelists, and Gongenzaka was not taken down.

On the other hand, since I was able to use so much of this material, I was able to get a head start on the next chapter, so that should come out on schedule, if not a bit early, but who knows.


	10. The Plot Thickens, then Freezes

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

Nazo ran along the highway, looking for some potential opponents. Unfortunately, it seems nobody was in his line of sight. He came upon a small alcove off the highway that connected to a temple. There he found an…odd sight. Kurosaki Shun and Yuya were in the middle of a three way duel between the Knight of Duels. The three knight duelists constantly harassed the other two by using their monsters to throw an attack at the two non-combatants. All in all it was an ugly scene.

Nazo called out, "Yuya! This way!"

Yuya looked up and ran towards Nazo, unfortunately, so did a duelist who positioned himself between Nazo and Yuya.

"I attack directly with Assault Knight Slash!"

Yuya dodged with a split second left.

"Assault Knight Slash can negate all battle damage!"

The attack was then immediately blocked by the player.

Nazo scowled, "Screw this… Yuya! Back me up!"

Nazo activated his duel disk, "Draw!"

_INTRUSION PENALTY -2000_

Nazo flinched as he was hit by a lightning bolt and half of his life points were shaved away instantly. Someone from the knight of duels actually laughed, "The moron! Who would obviously take us on at such a disadvantage? We can just attack him directly and be done with it."

Nazo swiped two of his cards in to his hand, "I, using the scale 1 Red Dragon and the scale 8 White Wyvern, set my pendulum scale!" The two monsters appeared in a pillar of light, "with this I can special summon monsters between levels 2-7 simultaneously! Here I go! Pendulum Summon! Soar to the Field, level 4 Dragunity Dux, and level 2 Dragunity Phalanx!"

The two monsters appeared in streaks of light from the sky and called out when they reached the field. Nazo held out his hand, "I synchro climb to level 8, Shake them up, Come forth, Thought Ruler Archfiend."

The psychic type monsters, with green wings and gold accents appeared on the field and roared. "Battle! Thought Ruler Archfiend, attack assault knight slash! Mind Breaker!"

The synchro monster launched forward and crushed one of the small monsters like it was nothing.

"Nazo smirked, "The effect of Thought Ruler Archfiend activates, when it destroys a monster by battle, I gain life points equal to that monster's attack points, so I gain 1600!"

A blue aura surrounded Nazo as his LP went back up to 3600. Nazo took the last two cards in his hand, "I set two cards and end my turn!"

One of the knight grimaced, "My-"

"My turn, Draw!"

A lightning bolt dropped down on Yuya as he intruded on the duel. He slightly cringed before shaking himself and continuing.

Yuya selected two cards from hand, "I, using the scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the scale 8 Timegazer Magician, set my pendulum scale!"

Both monsters rose up in pillars of light, a pendulum appeared and swung innocently between them. Yuya held up his hand, "With this I can summon multiple monsters between levels 2-7 simultaneously! Swing, Pendulum of Souls! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Come forth my faithful monsters!"

Four streaks of light came down revealing themselves to be Odd-eye Pendulum Dragon, Performapal Whip Snake, Performapal Sword Fish, and Performapal Mufflerlion.

"Sword Fish's effect activates! When this card is summoned, I can lower all my opponent's monster's attack and defense by 600 points! Sword Rain!"

The sword fish split in to multiple copies of itself and rained down on the two remaining knights.

"I use the effect of Performapal Whip Snake! I change the attack and defense of one of the Assault Slash Knights!"

The snake swung its tail as if it was a hypnotist and the attack and defense switched. Now that knight only had 400 attack points left.

"Battle! I attack the assault knight slash that I used my effect on before! Odd-eyes Pendulum Dragon, Attack with Spiral Strike Burst!" The dragon gathered flames in its mouth before firing them at the weakened monster. It burst apart instantly.

Yuya held out his hand, "When Odd-eyes inflicts battle damage, it is doubled! Reaction Force!"

The 2100 points became a swelling 4200 points, the boy was defeated instantly.

Yuya pointed at his lion, "I activate the effect of my Mufflerlion! Once per turn, when a pendulum monster destroys a monster by battle, it gains 200 attack and can attack a second time in a row! Odd-eyes Pendulum Dragon goes up to 2700 attack! Attack the other Assault Knight Slash!"

The dragon moved forward and fired a breath at the other monster which exploded into yellow shards. The damage was doubled for 2200 points.

Yuya held out his hand, "Whip Snake, Sword Fish, Finish him off!" The two monsters ran forward and struck the boy inflicting 2300 points of damage, causing him to go out of the duel.

"Mufflerlion, attack the last duelist!"

The lion sent flames at the last boy from knight of duels, searing off 800 points from his LP, leaving him at 2100.

Yuya smiled, "turn end."

The boy reached for his duel disk, "my-"

"My turn, Draw."

Nazo and Yuya turned to watch as Shun drew his card and took 2000 points of damage. Unlike the two boys before him, he did not even flinch at the damage.

"I play out RaidRaptor-Vanishing Lanius from my hand." The green bird appeared and let out a call.

"Vanishing Lanius' effect allows me to special summon one more RaidRaptor monster from my hand to the field, I summon out RaidRaptor-Sharp Lanius from my hand!" A red bird came to the field.

Shun held out his hand, "Battle! Both my monsters attack directly!"

The two birds called out and flew at the opponent, striking him and ending the duel.

As the three Knights lay on the ground, licking their wounds, Nazo walked over with a frown on his face, "I knew people would try dirty tactics… but this is just low."

Yuya nodded, "Your right, I didn't think anyone would go this low, but there are many people out there I guess."

Nazo turned to Shun and gave a smile, "Thanks for the help back there! It would have been troublesome if we didn't finish him off when we did."

Shun rolled his eyes, "I didn't do it to help you, I did it because they were in my way."

Nazo let out a sigh, "A 'you're welcome' would have sufficed as well…"

Yuya turned back to Shun, probably to restart their conversation, when he glanced something, "Hey Nazo, where there any participants that had all blue garbs and really weird masks?"

Nazo frowned, "No, why do you ask?"

Yuya pointed to three people running down the highway, "Who are they?"

Shun's eyes widened, "Academia! They're invading!"

Nazo and Yuya turned to face Shun, "Invading?"

Shun offered them no more answers, or rather, he couldn't, since an attack slammed into him knocking him into a pillar.

Nazo and Yuya turned to see Knight of Duels once again on their feet with their signature monster out in front of them.

Nazo grit his teeth, "you have got to be kidding me! How persistent are they?"

Yuya dodged to the side due to an attack, "We have bigger things to worry about! If what Korosaki said is true, we need to warn the other participants!"

Nazo dodged to the side behind a pillar to avoid an attack, "I don't think, 'A dimensional war is going on, go back to the stadium,' is a very convincing argument!"

Yuya rolled out of the way of another attack, "Then force them back! Duel them and eliminate them from the tournament…. GAHH!" Yuya was struck and flew off the platform onto one of the surrounding pillars. He picked himself up, "Nazo leave now!"

Nazo scowled and ran the other direction, back towards the artic zone, he glanced back and he thought he saw a familiar face, one with blue hair, but he turned and ran.

How was he supposed to know? How was he supposed to know that he should have stayed and helped? How his actions could have saved 3 lives? How simply staying would have prevented his friend falling into darkness again? He didn't, so he ran.

-§-

Nazo skidded to a halt; his breath came in short rasps. He scanned the area, ironically it was where he had just left from. There was no sign of the previous duelists, Nazo frowned, _"Guess that would have been too easy."_ He started walked looked for a participant, He glanced up at a screen, out of the 32 participants, around 8 of them had been eliminated and had headed back to the stadium.

"There you are!"

Nazo turned to face a boy he had never met, Nazo couldn't help by frown, "Umm, can I help you?"

The boy pointed furiously at him, "you were part of the group that defeated my precious Olga! I, Yamada Momotaro, will never forgive you!" Nazo frowned. "Look, I really don't have time for this, just go back to the stadium, it is not safe out here."

The boy barked out a laugh, "What? Are you scared? I cannot believe someone like you beat one of our best students from our branch."

Nazo grimaced, "Fine, we will do it your way. How many pendulum cards do you have right now?"

The boy raised an eyebrow, "I have two, why?"

Nazo raised two of his own pendulum cards, "I bet my two for your two."

The boy shook his head, "No way! It is a win-win for you! If you win, I am out, but if you lose, you still have one!"

Nazo rolled his eyes before taking out his last pendulum card and showing all three, "Fine, I bet my three for your two."

It should have been fairly obvious at this point that no sane person would willingly bet more for the ante rule when their opponent bets less unless they were truly desperate.

It was not obvious enough for Yamada however, since he accepted the duel.

Duel!

Nazo 4000 Cards 5

Yamada 4000 Cards 5

Nazo called out, "I activate Dragon Ravine! I discard Dragunity Phalanx to add Dragunity Dux to my hand!" The card appeared about Nazo as he discarded the appropriate card and retrieved a card from his deck.

"I play Dragunity Dux! It equips itself with Phalanx from the grave! I then special summon it with its own effect! I synchro climb to level 8. Come forth, Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The monsters appeared on the field before becoming Vajrayana, then finally Stardust Spark Dragon.

"I set two cards and end my turn!"

Yamada smirked, "My turn, Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 1

Yamada 4000 Cards: 6

Yamada selected two cards from his hand. "I, using the scale 1, white crystal, and the scale 9, white flower, set my pendulum scale!"

Nazo frowned as he watched the two monsters now spells rise up in white columns.

"Pendulum Summon! I summon out four monsters! Come to me now! Warlock of the Ice Barrier, Defender of the Ice Barrier, General Gantala of the Ice Barrier, and General Grunard of the Ice Barrier!"

Four streaks of light rained down from above and contacted with the ground. Defender and Warlock were summoned in defense mode, while the two Generals were in attack.

Yamada held out his hand, "Battle! General Gantala will attack Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The blue armored monster ran forward and slashed at Stardust."

Nazo shook his head, "I activate Stardust Spark Dragon's effect! I can target one face up card on the field. I can negate the destruction of that card once!"

The warrior hit a barrier, and while Nazo took damage, the dragon did not fall.

Yamada laughed, "I have two monsters! Attack Grunard!"

Nazo tapped his duel disk, "Trap Card, Open, Draining Shield, the attack is negated and I gain the current attack as LP.

Yamada causally walked to the side and grabbed an action card.

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "Future insurance?"

Yamada looked at him, and then followed his gaze to the action card in his hand, "Whoops, did I forget to tell you? Warlock's effect is that as long as I control another Ice Barrier monster, it forces players to set their spell cards before they can activate them. Spell cards that are set cannot be activated until the next turn."

Nazo frowned, "must have slipped your mind, anything else I should know?"

Yamada shrugged, "Defender doesn't allow monsters will attack equal to or higher than its defense attack at all as long as I have another Ice Barrier monster on the field. General Gantala allows me to summon an Ice Barrier monster to the field during the end phase. General Grunard allows me to normal summon or set an Ice Barrier monster in addition to my normal summon or set, but who needs that when I have Pendulum Summon?"

Nazo sighed and glanced at his duel disk, the defense of defender was 1600, meaning as long as it was on the field, he couldn't attack with any of his high power monsters. In addition, he could not play out his pendulum cards nor activate action magic cards conventionally.

Yamada set the action card he had picked up, "Turn end."

Nazo gripped his top card, "Draw!"

Nazo 6400 Cards: 2

Yamada 4000 Cards: 0

Nazo picked up one card, "I activate Dragon Ravine! I discard Dragunity Aklys and get Dux to hand!"

The appropriate card was spat out and Nazo grabbed it.

"I play Dux out and summon out Phalanx, I synchro climb to level 8! Come Forth! Scrap Dragon!"

The purple dragon appeared on the field and roared. Nazo held out his hand, "I activate the effect of Stardust Spark Dragon! I can target one face-up card on the field and negate its destruction once! I choose itself! Now I activate the effect of Scrap Dragon! I destroy one card on each side of the field; I target Stardust and defender of the Ice Barrier! Scrap Annihilator!"

Stardust Spark Dragon roared and created a barrier around itself. Scrap Dragon made the barrier shatter, and absorbed the shards into its mouth before firing them at the appropriate monster.

Nazo clenched his fist, "Battle! I attack Gantala of the Ice barrier with my Scrap Dragon, Scrap Breath!"

Yamada tapped his duel disk, "Reverse Card, Open! I activate action magic, Blind Blizzard! I immediately end the battle phase!"

A harsh blizzard forced Scrap Dragon to fly back to Nazo's side of the field.

Nazo sighed, "I set one card and end my turn."

Yamada drew, "Draw!"

Nazo 6400 Cards: 0

Yamada 4000 Cards: 1

Yamada looked down at his card and smirked, "My set up is complete! I summon out Geomancer of the Ice Barrier! I now tune my level 3 Geomancer with my level 3 Warlock, Come forth and freeze all! Your fangs will break down all who get in your way! Synchro Summon! Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier!"

The tiger leap onto the field and roared. Yamada smiled, "I activate his effect, once per turn, I can send all face up cards on my side of the field to their owner's hands, and this card gains 500 attack for each card sent by this effect."

The two other monsters as well as the pendulum scales disappeared as they were gathered into Yamada's hand. The tiger roared as a harsh blue aura surrounded it, raising its attack to 4000. Yamada held out the two pendulum cards, "I reset my scale and pendulum summon!"

The two scales rose up and a portal appeared between them, raining down two streaks of light, summoning back the two monsters who had just left. Nazo scowled, "That is pretty neat combo you thought up."

Yamada laughed, "Yeah, too bad I can't do it without pendulum cards. Battle! Dewloren attack Stardust Spark Dragon! Flash Freeze!"

Nazo held out his hand, "I activate Stardust Spark's effect and target himself!"

The barrier was created just as the attack struck. While the dragon would survive, Nazo winced as 1500 life points were stripped away.

"Next I attack with Gantala! I attack Stardust Spark Dragon!" The monster charged forward and struck the white dragon, destroying it.

"Finally, I attack with Grunard, I attack Scrap dragon!"

The other warrior charged forward and struck the purple dragon. In fury, Scrap Dragon retaliated and fired a burst at the warrior; as a result both were destroyed.

Yamada smirked, "During the end phase, I revive one ice barrier from my grave; I choose to bring back my Defender of the Ice Barrier!" The wolf once more moved to the field and howled.

Nazo frowned, it would be an infinite combo of attack increasing and pendulum summoning, always with that Defender blocking for him. Fortunately, there was always a solution.

Yamada smirked, "Turn end."

Nazo grinned, "Draw!"

Nazo 4900 Cards: 1

Yamada 4000 Cards: 0

Nazo pointed at his field spell above him, "I activate the effect of Dragon Ravine! I discard one card to get Dragunity Legionnaire to my hand!"

Nazo slotted the card into the grave before reacting out and grabbing the card from the deck. "I play out Dragunity Legionnaire! I equip him with Dragunity Aklys!"

The green suited man appeared and soon after a spear appeared beside him. Nazo tapped his duel disk, "I activate my face down! Divine Dragunity Lance! I equip it to Legionnaire! This boosts his attack by 300 as well as allows me to get one Dragon Type 'Dragunity' Tuner from my deck and equip it to him! I choose Brandistock!"

The divine lance appeared in Legionnaire's other hand, as well as a claw appeared around his right wrist.

Nazo held out his hand, "I use Legionnaire's effect! I send one of the cards equipped to him to the grave and destroy one face up monster on the field, I send Aklys to destroy Dewloren!"

Legionnaire pulled back his hand and threw the spear at the wolf; it pierced through it and hit the ground. Nazo smiled, "When Aklys is sent to the grave, I can destroy one card on the field, I choose to destroy Gantala!"

A shockwave emanated from the grounded spear and it destroyed itself as well as the ice barrier monster.

Nazo nodded, "I once again use the effect of Legionnaire, I send Divine Lance to the grave to destroy Defender of the Ice Barrier!"

Legionnaire repeated his previous actions and threw the lance right through the monster, destroying it.

Nazo held out his hand, "Battle! Legionnaire attacks directly! Since he has Dragunity Brandistock equipped, he can attack twice!"

The monster moved forward and struck Yamada once before using the claw to strike him again.

Nazo breathed out, "Turn end!"

Yamada breathed heavily, "Draw!"

Nazo 4900 Cards: 0

Yamada 1600 Cards: 1

Yamada glanced down at his card and smirked, "I activate Crazy Sacrificial Draw! I can draw up to the number of cards on you control, but I lose 500 life points for each card drawn! Furthermore, for as many cards I draw, I skip that many draw phases! All battle damage received is halved for the remainder of this turn. You control 4 cards, but seeing as I have only 1600 life points I can only draw up to 3 times, I pay 1500 life points to draw 3 cards!"

Yamada swiped three cards from his deck and looked down. "I now pendulum summon!"

Nazo frowned, thinking back he really should have hit a pendulum scale with Aklys and then used Brandistock to hit the last monster, in his haste to end the duel, he had forgotten a more pressing matter.

"I summon out Level 2 Tuner Dewdark of the Ice Barrier, Level 3 Shock Troopers of the Ice Barrier, and level 4 Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier."

The three monsters appeared in streaks of light. Yamada pointed, "Battle! I attack your Legionnaire with my Dance Princess!"

The woman jumped forward and struck the costumed man, inflicting 250 points of damage. "Now Dewdark and Shock Trooper attack directly!"

The two monsters moved forward and struck Nazo, dropping his life points down to 3300. Yamada nodded, "It is not over yet! Main Phase 2! I synchro my three monsters together! Come forth, the dragon of absolute compulsion! Force your foes to their knees in agony! Banish them! Synchro Summon! Level 9 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"

The three headed dragon descended and roared force fully. Yamada held out his hand, "When Trishula is synchro summoned, I can banish one card in your hand, one card on your field, and one card in your grave. You have no cards in hand, but I banish Dragon Ravine, and tuner monster Phalanx from grave."

The two cards were removed from play. Nazo scowled, he was in a bad position now.

Yamada shrugged, "Turn end."

Nazo swiped his next card, "Draw!"

Nazo 3300 Cards: 1

Yamada 100 Cards: 0

Nazo glanced down; the card he held was monster card, Dragunity Mystletainn. It would not help him at all. Nazo sighed before turning and running, shouting "Turn End!"

Yamada laughed, "My turn! My Draw Phase is skipped!"

Nazo 3300 Cards: 1

Yamada 100 Cards: 0

Yamada ran after him, "Battle! Trishula attack! Giga Freeze!"

Nazo spotted an action magic and reached out for it, but it was to no avail. Trishula's tail whipped out and slammed in front of Nazo, causing him to stop and the action card to flutter away. Nazo turned around and was hit by the attack causing him to fly back into the snow.

Yamada smiled, "Turn end."

Nazo slowly got to his feet, coughing a bit, "Draw."

Nazo 600 cards: 2

Yamada 100 Cards: 0

Nazo ground his teeth, his second card was the pendulum card, Red Dragon, and it would be no help alone. Nazo tapped his duel disk, "I activate my face down! Reckless Greed! I draw two cards and skip my next two draw phases!"

Nazo drew two cards and looked at them before breathing out in relief. He held out two cards, "I, using the scale 1 Red Dragon and the scale 8 White Wyvern, set my Pendulum Scale!" The two monsters rose up in white pillars and after reaching a certain height, stopped with their respective numbers underneath. "With this I can special summon monsters between levels 2-7 simultaneously! Here I go! Pendulum Summon! Soar to the Field, Level 6 Dragunity Mystletainn!"

The yellow dragon appeared, roaring to the world when it touched down. Nazo held out his hand. "When Mystletainn is normal or special summoned from the hand, I can attach one Dragunity monster whose level is 3 or lower! I equip him with Brandistock!" A claw appeared on the yellow dragon's wrist.

"Battle! I attack your Trishula with my Mystletainn!"

The yellow dragon rushed forward raising its sword.

Nazo played his last card, "Quick-play Magic! Forbidden Lance! I lower your monster's attack by 800!"

Yamada took a step back, "What did you say?!"

The attack connected causing the dragon to explode, ending the duel. As the images faded Nazo walked up and held out his hand, "That was a close duel, I had fun."

Yamada frowned, before giving a sigh and smiling, "yeah, it was fun, and I know how you beat Olga."

Yamada took the two pendulum cards into his hand and gave Nazo a handshake while passing the cards to him, "good luck with the rest of this tournament, and don't lose to anyone else!"

Nazo grinned, "I will try my best." With a wave of goodbye, Yamada trekked back towards the stadium.

Nazo looked up to one of the screens to see the players as well as the areas. Both magma and ancient ruins area's camera feeds were offline. It showed Michi, the food duelist, in the jungle area, and it showed Nazo looking at the screen passively in the artic area. The amount of participants now eliminated was around 12. With a look of determination, Nazo turned and started to run.

-§-

Whoo! Finally got to write about Ice Barriers! I just hope I did them some justice, since I have never played them nor played against them ever.

Now some of you might ask, "Why didn't you have Nazo witness the Yuya go berserk?" Simple, since Nazo and Yuya are friends, and Yuya is a guy that tries to enjoy his duels, Nazo would try to snap his out of it. He would fail, since it was shown Gongenzaka, Yuya's best friend couldn't snap him out of it, but honestly it would be a pain to write. Also if I did that it would be one of the common mistakes of writing. Take a scene, shove your OC in it. Obviously, I can't avoid this entirely, like last chapter I ripped off a good part of a duel, but for the most part, I want to keep things original.

According to my outline, either the next chapter or the chapter after that, things will start going in another direction than the anime, which is good, considering I was constantly stealing from it before. Hopefully, it will turn out to be just as interesting as the original.

A note, from my editor made me take a step back and relook at all of my work so far. He claimed that I do not include many of the aspects to a duel which I SHOULD include, like attack, defense, level and, if necessary, attribute. He went on to explain that instead of going out and looking up EVERY SINGLE CARD to make sure that my attack values were right or wrong, I should just include it in my writing. This would allow readers to easily enjoy this more without stopping every few seconds to check up how much attack Grunard, General of the Ice Barrier has. If you are wondering about effects, don't worry, if the effect is important, I usually type it out, if not, I do not explain it since it is not necessary to the duel.

All in all, if you think I should include these aspects in my writing, send me a review or pm asking me to do so, if not, then tell me the way I write is too your liking.

As always, if you enjoyed it, please leave a review. If you disliked it, tell me how I could do better. If card count or rulings were off, give a review or shoot me a PM.

Thank you to Shimmering-Sky and lightgazer for reviewing, your reviews make these chapters come out faster. Thank you for all the favorites and follows as well.


	11. Desperate Battle

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

DUEL!

Nazo held out one card, "I activate Dragon Ravine! I discard one card to get Dragunity Phalanx to hand!" Nazo slotted one card into his grave as the duel disk spat out the level 2, tuner monster. Nazo grabbed it. "I set one monster and set one card, Turn end!"

His opponent reached for his deck, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 3

Yakuma 4000 Cards: 6

The boy grabbed two cards and held them out, "I set my scale using the scale 1 green beetle, and scale 10 red scarab!"

Nazo sighed as the two monsters rose in white columns. Was he imagining it or did everyone stack their deck? Almost everyone he knocked out of the tournament was able to get their scales first turn, regardless if they had 2 or 4 pendulum cards. This boy in particular had 3 cards, so out of a 40, (or was it now 43?), he would have an absolutely low chance in getting it, but somehow he had succeeded.

Nazo snapped out of his train of thought as he opponent announced he would be pendulum summoning. "I summon out level 3, tuner monster, Naturia Stink bug, level 2, tuner monster Naturia Cosmobeet, level 2, Naturia Antjaw, and level 4 Naturia Beetle!"

The four monsters came to the field in a flash. Yakuma held out his hand, "Synchro summon! I tune my Naturia Stick Bug with my Naturia Antjaw! Synchro Summon Naturia Beast!"

A green tiger covered in leaves and tree bark growing on its legs appeared. It roared, boasting its 2200 attack power. "I synchro summon again! I tune my Naturia Cosmobeet with my Naturia Beetle! Synchro Summon! Naturia Barkion!"

A green dragon with brown scales emerged. It twist its serpentine body. Nazo looked down to see it had 2500 attack. His opponent laughed, "You're finished! With both Naturia Beast and Barkion on the field, I can negate any spell or trap cards that you play! You can no longer win! Battle! Beast attacks your face down!"

The green tiger charged forward and struck the card, revealing itself to be the phalanx Nazo had gotten last turn. "Barkion, Direct Attack!"

The dragon breathed in and hit Nazo causing him to skid back a few meters, dropping his life points down to 1500

His opponent smiled, "Turn end!"

Nazo scowled, "Draw!"

Nazo 1500 Cards:4

Yakuma 4000 Cards: 0

Nazo looked down, "I activate the effect of Dragon Ravine! I discard Dragunity Arma Leyvaten to get Dragunity Legionnaire to hand!"

His opponent shrugged, "You are lucky you played that last turn, Beast cannot negate effects that are already on the field, only the activation of the spell card itself."

Nazo turned the card in his hand and played it, "Come on out Legionnaire, and with it his effect activates, allowing me to attach Dragunity Phalanx to him." The winged monster appeared and a knife was presented to him.

Nazo held out his hand, "I now banish him to summon out Dragunity Arma Leyvaten from the grave! Leyvaten also gets the effect of equipping one Dragunity monster to itself, so I equip Dragunity Phalanx."

The green garbed man was sucked into a dark portal and an orange dragon with a large sword appeared, which grabbed the knife that Legionnaire left behind.

"I summon out Phalanx to the field via its own effect!"

The knife was thrown to the ground and it transformed into the small tuner dragon.

Nazo clenched his fist, "I am tuning my level 8 Leyvaten with my level 2 Phalanx! _I call upon the beast which destroys all who dare oppose it, with its three heads it will annihilate anything in its path_, Synchro Summon! Come forth, Trident Dragion!"

The large three headed dragon descended and roared, displaying its 3000 attack power. Nazo's opponent took a step back in terror.

Nazo shrugged, "Trident Dragion's effect activates, I can destroy up to two cards on my side of the field, and if I do, Trident Dragion gets an additional attack for each card I destroyed. I destroy my field spell and my face down."

The two side heads leaned down and devoured the two cards Nazo had offered up as tribute.

Nazo grinned, "Battle, Trident Dragion attack with Delta Trident Burst! First Beast!"

The blast wiped out the monster, inflicting 800 points of damage. "Now Barkion!" The blast collided with the other dragon, causing it to crumble to nothing. "Now directly!" The last head gathered energy before firing taking out Nazo's opponent.

Nazo walked up to his opponent and retrieved the 3 pendulum cards that he had bet. The opponent scowled at him, "What the hell? Why are you doing this? You think you are just some hotshot that can take out everyone?"

Nazo sighed, "Think what you want, I have my own reasons, and you wouldn't believe me anyway. Now go back to the stadium, where it is safe."

The boy huffed in indignation, but otherwise started to walk back to the stadium. Nazo breathed out a sigh of relief. Nazo glanced at a Score board, at this point he had taken down 4 duelists, and in all, around 16 participants were left. Nazo had fought a fair amount and considered taking a rest.

Nazo shook his head, _"No… Yuya is probably trying his hardest as well, getting people to safety, and I have yet to meet Gongenzaka or Yuzu to tell them about the danger, I'll keep going until I know at least those two are safe…"_

With that in mind, Nazo ran out of the jungle area, unconsciously passing a chef, a psychic, a fisherman, a warrior and an unconscious entertainer.

It was nearing night now as Nazo wandered back into the Arctic Zone. Nazo sighed, he had not been able to find anyone after he had exited the jungle area. Nazo scratched the back of his head, "where to go from here?" Nazo crossed his arms and thought. Considering he had not found anyone after his last duel, people were probably retiring for the night. He scratched his head in frustration, "Guess I should turn in…Hmm?"

Out of the corner of his eye Nazo spotted a figure in the distance. Nazo ran towards them, it could be someone he knew, if not he could always eliminate them. Turned out it was someone he knew, Yuzu specifically, in some odd, red get up. More urgently however, he noted that she was surrounded by three people, and by the color of their garbs, they were academia members. Nazo's eyes widened as he recognized the familiar glow of a duel disk. _"She is dueling them?!"_

Nazo was about to call out when he saw someone jump down from above. Soon after the academia members deactivated their duel disks and ran away. Nazo picked up his speed.

The boy grinned, "So how about this? We'll Duel, and if I win, you listen to whatever I say?"

"And if you lose you get the hell out of our sight?"

The boy turned to find a tired Nazo glaring at him.

Yuzu was surprised, "Nazo!"

Nazo gave a slight wave before returning his gaze back to the other boy, "Who are you? You're clearly not Yuya… That pawn of fusion perhaps?"

The boy scoffed, "I don't know about that, but I will tell you my name, Yuri… remember it, it is going to be the last name you hear."

There was the sound of rushing feet behind Nazo causing him to turn around; three Obelisk members approached Nazo, wicked grins on their faces.

"What did I tell you before? You're nuisances, get out of here." Yuri stated with ice in his voice. The three members backed up before once again vacating the area. Yuri turned to Nazo with a clear malicious grin on his face, "I accept your terms, though I would never lose to the likes of you." With that Yuri started walking a bit away from them before stopping and turning around, activating his duel disk as he did so.

"Well then, shall we begin?"

Nazo frowned, but activated his duel disk anyway.

Yuzu followed suit.

DUEL!

Nazo 4000 Cards: 5

Yuzu 4000 Cards: 5

Yuri 4000 Cards: 5

Yuri smiled, "I will start! I activate El Shaddoll Fusion! I fuse my Shaddoll Falco and my Shaddoll Beast from my hand." Yuri held up two cards, and the images were projected, revealing themselves to be a purple falcon and a purple armored wolf. The two changed colors and swirled together. Yuri clasped his hands together above his head, then bringing them down in front of him, "Fusion Summon! El Shaddoll Winda!" The 2200 attack monster descended down and roared. Yuri grinned sinisterly, "El Shaddoll Winda's effects are as follows, it cannot be destroyed by my opponent's card effects, all players can only special summon once per turn, and if this card is sent to the grave, I can add one Shaddoll magic or trap card back to my hand."

Yuri's graveyard glowed, "I now activate both Falco's and Beast's effects! Since Falco was sent to the grave by a card effect, I can special summon it back to the field in facedown!"

A facedown defense monster appeared on the field, depicted by a small purple blob with a black spiked cage around it.

"When beast is sent to the grave via card effect, I draw one card!"

Yuri calmly drew one card from his deck and after glancing at it selected another card from his hand and set both.

"I set two cards and I end my turn."

Nazo nodded at Yuzu, "You know my play style, I am depending on you to get rid of that fusion."

Yuzu nodded, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards 5

Yuzu 4000 Cards: 6

Yuri 4000 Cards: 1

Yuzu picked up two card, "I, using the scale 3 White Butterfly and scale 9 White Flower, Set my Pendulum Scale!"

Yuzu laid down the cards causing two light pillars to erupt on either side of her. The aforementioned monsters rose up and stopped a few meters above them.

Yuzu held up her hand, "Pendulum Summon! It is your time to take the stage! Come forth, Elegy the Melodious Diva and Mozarta the Melodious Maestra!"

The two monsters came down. Yuzu pointed at Elegy, "Elegy effect! All special summoned Melodious monster cannot be destroyed by card effect! Also when this card is special summoned, all fairy type monsters I control gain 300 attack!" A warm blue light enveloped both Yuzu's monsters. Elegy's attack rose to 2300 while Mozarta's attack rose to 2900.

Yuzu pointed at Yuri's facedown, "I attack your face down monster with my Elegy!" The monster rose up and breathed in before singing a piercing note which flipped over Yuri's monster. Yuri acted, "Falco's flip effect activates! I can summon on Shaddoll Monster in my grave to the field face down! I choose Shaddoll Beast!" Falco screamed and another face down monster appeared on the field before Falco was destroyed by Elegy.

Yuzu pointed towards Yuri's other monster, "Battle! I attack your El Shaddoll Winda with my Mozarta!" The monster rose up and fired sound waves at the monster, destroying it. Yuri lazily grabbed back the El Shaddoll Fusion in his grave.

Yuzu breathed out, then selected one card from her hand, "I set one card and end my turn!"

Yuzu gave a thumbs up to Nazo, who nodded gratefully, before turning to face Yuri, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 6

Yuzu 4000 Cards: 1

Yuri 3300 Cards: 2

Nazo scanned his hand, "I summon out Dux!" The eagle costumed man appeared. Nazo slotted another card into his duel disk, "I activate Dragunity Divine Lance! I equip it to Dux, and activate its effect! I can attach one Dragunity tuner monster to him, and I choose Dragunity Phalanx who I special summon out!"

The small purple dragon appeared with a roar. Nazo held out his hand, "I synchro climb to level 8! Come forth Stardust Spark Dragon!" The white dragon roared as it descended. Nazo pointed at Yuri, "Battle! Stardust Spark attacks your facedown monster! Spark Shot!"

Yuri smirked, "Trap Card, Open! Sinister Shadow games! I can send one Shaddoll card from my deck to the grave, and then I can flip all facedown Shaddoll monsters in to face-up defense position! I send Shaddoll hound to the grave, which activates one of its effects! I can target one monster on the field and switch its battle position! I target Stardust!"

The phantom image of a dark armored dog appeared for a second, letting out a bark. Stardust Spark Dragon roared and was forced into defense position. Yuri smirked, "Now I flip all my facedown Shaddoll monsters." The Shaddoll Beast was flipped face up activating its effect.

Yuri reached over to his deck, "When Beast is flipped, I can draw 2 cards, but then discard one card." The top two cards were swiped off the top of the deck. Yuri looked over them before discarding one.

A faded image of a serpentine armor appeared above Yuri, "When I discarded Shaddoll Squamata, I activated its effect! I can send one Shaddoll card from my deck to the grave. I choose to send Shaddoll Falco, which in turn activates its effect, special summoning it to the field in facedown defense position." A facedown card with the appropriate facedown icon appeared.

Nazo scowled, "I set 2 cards and end my turn."

Yuri shrugged, "You are not putting up too much of a challenge, that girl is a better duelist than you, draw."

Nazo 4000 Cards: 2

Yuzu 4000 Cards: 1

Yuri 3300 Cards: 4

Yuri glanced at it before smirking and showing it to the other two, "I activate Shaddoll Fusion! I can summon one fusion Shaddoll monster using materials from my hand or field, but if there is a monster from the extra deck, I can use materials from my deck!" Nazo clenched his fist as he glanced at his monster.

"I send, from my deck, effect vieler and Shaddoll Dragon! Come forth! Fusion Summon, El Shaddoll Construct!" A purple armored, humanoid monster descended. Nazo frowned and glanced at his duel disk, gleaning what information it could tell him. It had 2800 attack and 2500 defense. Yuri laughed, "Construct's and Dragon's effect activate. I can send one Shaddoll card from my deck to my grave. I chose to send Shaddoll Hedgehog. Dragon's effect activates, I can destroy one spell or trap card on the field, I choose your facedown, boy, the right one." Nazo's facedown shattered into yellow shards.

"Hedgehog effect activates, which allows me to add one Shaddoll monster from my deck to my hand, I chose Shaddoll Beast." Yuri's duel disk ejected a card and Yuri grabbed it and placed it in his hand.

Yuri tapped his duel disk, "I activate my reverse card, Shaddoll Core, I can summon this trap card out as a monster with the attribute I declare. I choose Earth."

The trap card flashed before a monster of many faces appeared. Yuzu took a step back in revolt.

Yuri revealed a card in his hand, "I activate my El Shaddoll Fusion! I fuse the Beast in my hand and my Shaddoll Core!" the two cards once again started to swirl about above them. Yuri grinned maliciously, "Fusion Summon, Come Forth El Shaddoll Shekhinaga."

The large monster descended down. Nazo's eyes widened. The monster had 2600 attack and 3000 defense. Nazo grit his teeth, this Yuri guy was pulling out all the stops.

Yuri's graveyard glowed, "I activate the effect of Beast and Core, Beast allows me to draw another card." Yuri drew another card, giving it a cursory glance. "Core allows me to get one Shaddoll Card back into my hand, I choose Shaddoll Fusion. Now, I change my defense position Shaddoll Beast to attack. Now Battle! I attack your Spark Dragon with my Shaddoll Beast. Dark Bite!"

Nazo held out his hand, "I activate the effect of Stardust Spark Dragon! I can target one card on the field, I can negate destruction of that card once during this turn!"

Yuri laughed, "I activate the effect of El Shaddoll Shekhinaga! During either player's turn, when a Special Summoned monster activates its effect while I have a "Shaddoll" card in my hand: I can negate the activation, and if I do, destroy that monster, then send 1 "Shaddoll" card from my hand to the Graveyard.

Nazo hurriedly tapped his duel disk, "Trap card, open! Fiendish Chain! I negate the effect of your monster!"

Chains wrapped around Yuri's monster and Stardust successfully made a barrier around itself, before the monster struck Nazo's monster, and was repelled.

Yuri clicked his tongue, "Nuisance, no matter, Construct will attack Elegy the Melodious Diva. When Construct battles a special summoned monster, it is destroyed at the start of the damage step."

Yuzu smirked, "Due to Elegy's effect all special summoned Melodious monsters cannot be destroyed by card effects!"

Yuri snorted, "True, but they still can be destroyed by battle!"

Yuzu shook her head, "I won't let you! Reverse card, open! Pianissimo! I can lower the attack of one of my monsters to 100, but it cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects for the rest of this turn, I choose Elegy!"

Yuzu crossed her arms as the shockwaves emanated from the battle between the two monsters causing her to fly back a fair distance.

Nazo scowled, "Yuzu you ok?"

Yuzu breathed heavily while lowering her arms, "I am fine…he won't defeat me…"

Yuri barked out a laugh, "believe what you want, I now flip my facedown Shaddoll monster, Falco, and activate his effect. I can set one Shaddoll monster from my grave, I choose Shaddoll Beast." The facedown appeared on Yuri's field.

"I set one card facedown, I end my turn."

Yuzu wearily grabbed her next card, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 2

Yuzu 1300 Cards: 2

Yuri 3300 Cards: 4

Yuzu glanced down, "I-"

Yuri tapped his duel disk, "Reverse Card, open, I activate El Shaddoll Fusion, I fuse my Falco and face up Beast to summon out El Shaddoll Winda once more!" The two monsters merged together and the monster reappeared.

Yuri smirked, "Beast and Falco's effects activate, I draw one card and I re-set Falco."

Yuri casually drew one card as a facedown appeared on his side of the field. Yuzu scowled, "I pendulum summon! Come to the stage, Soprano the Melodious Diva!" A woman with long red hair descended.

Yuri held out one card, "I activate the effect of effect veiler! I can discard this card to target one card on the field and negate its effects for the rest of the turn! I choose Elegy the melodious diva!" Yuri discarded the card and a shock ran across the woman, lowering her and all other melodious monsters attack by 300.

Yuzu frowned, "Battle! Maestra attacks EL Shaddoll Winda!" The woman floated up and loosed a shockwave at the opposing monster. The monster was struck and burst into yellow shards.

Yuri retrieved one card from his grave, "Winda's effect allows me to get one Shaddoll Spell or Trap Card from the grave back to hand, I get El Shaddoll Fusion."

Yuzu pointed at Elegy, "I attack your facedown Beast with my Elegy!" The woman sent a song and struck the facedown monster, revealing it to be Shaddoll Beast.

Yuri held out his hand, "Beast's flip effect activates, I draw two cards then send one card from my hand to the grave."

Yuri drew twice, "I send Shaddoll Dragon to grave, which activates its own effect, destroying the nuisances' fiendish chain."

The chains around Yuri's monster shattered as the card shattered as well. Nazo frowned, _"This is going to be a problem…"_

Yuzu frowned but continued, "My Soprano will attack your other facedown!"

The woman sent an shockwave at the facedown destroying the Falco that was revealed.

Yuri shrugged, "Shaddoll Falco can only activate one effect per turn, and only once that turn, pretty smart idea to get rid of it."

Yuzu breathed heavily, "I set one card and end my turn."

Nazo grit his teeth, Yuzu was not looking so good, hopefully they would finish this soon, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 3

Yuzu 1300 Cards: 0

Yuri 2900 Cards: 6

Nazo looked at the card he drew and mentally cursed. He couldn't summon anything this turn. He took all the cards in his hand and slotted them into the duel disk, "I set three and end my turn…"

Yuri smirked, "My turn, Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 0

Yuzu 1300 Cards: 0

Yuri 2900 Cards: 7

Yuri glanced at his hand and grinned. He tapped his duel disk, "I activate my facedown, Shaddoll Core and declare Fire!"

The same monster-trap appeared on the field. Yuri held out one card, "I play Shaddoll Fusion! Since you control a monster from the extra deck, I can use materials from my deck! I fuse my Shaddoll Core with my Shaddoll Falco in deck! Fusion Summon, Come Forth! El Shaddoll Grysta!" The flaming monster of 2450 attack was created. Yuri smirked, "The effects of both Falco and Core activate! I get Shaddoll Beast from grave and I set Falco!" Yuri grabbed the card from the grave as the monster appeared on the field.

Yuri held out his hand, "I tribute my facedown Falco to summon out Shaddoll Beast!" The monster disappeared and the Wolf-like monster appeared. Yuri smirked as he selected another card from his hand, "By banishing the effect vieler and the Shaddoll Dragon in my grave, I summon out Chaos Sorcerer!" The sinister monster rose up from the ground.

Yuri pointed at Chaos Sorcerer, "I activate his effect! I can banish one monster on the field, but it cannot attack the turn he uses this effect! I banish Mozarta!"

The red dressed woman was sucked into a portal and disappeared without a trace. Yuri then pointed at Nazo, "Battle! I attack your Spark Dragon with my Beast!" The monster ran forward and struck the dragon, destroying it.

Nazo smirked, "I activate Shadow Impulse! I can summon one synchro monster from my extra deck with the same Type and Level as the monster just destroyed! I summon-"

Yuri let out a malicious laugh, "I activate the effect of Grysta! During either player's turn, when my opponent would Special Summon a monster(s) while I have a "Shaddoll" card in my hand: I can negate the Summon, and if I do, destroy that monster, then send 1 "Shaddoll" card from my hand to the Graveyard. I negate your summon and I discard Shaddoll Dragon to the grave, destroying one of your face downs!"

Nazo's eyes widened as everything exploded in front of him. His last facedown, Trap Stun, would do him no good.

Nazo unconsciously started to back up. Yuri laughed, "Looks like you are no longer a threat, Grysta attack Soprano."

The monster fired flames at the woman. Yuzu shouted out, "Reverse Card, open! Lumanize! I negate the attack and add that monster's attack to one light monster on my side of the field. This lasts until the end of the next turn! I choose Soprano!" The monster's attack rose sharply from 1700 to 4150

Yuri let out a sound of amusement, "In the long run it doesn't matter… Shekhinaga, attack Elegy!" The monster sent out a shockwave and destroyed the diva. "Now, Construct attack Soprano."

The monster moved forward and struck the opposing monster. The monster burst apart into yellow shards, since it had been special summoned. Yuzu let out a sigh of relief, they had somehow survived.

Yuri gave a sinister grin, "Don't think it is over! I activate El Shaddoll Fusion from my hand! I fuse my Beast with my Chaos Sorcerer to create Winda once more! I draw one card due to Beast's effect! Attack Yuzu Directly!"

"Action magic! Blind Blizzard!"

A large blizzard blew through, causing the attack to be negated. Yuzu looked up and gave a weary smile to Nazo, who nodded in response.

Yuri clicked his tongue, "oh well, turn end."

Yuzu grabbed her top card, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 0

Yuzu 1000 Cards: 1

Yuri 2900 Cards: 4

Yuzu looked at her card, and she looked back up at Yuri, "Turn End."

Nazo frowned, thing were looking bad… they would both be finished at this rate, "Draw!"

Nazo 4000 Cards: 1

Yuzu 1000 Cards: 1

Yuri 2900 Cards: 4

Nazo looked down and cursed, this card would not help him, no matter he tried… Nazo clenched his fist in frustration.

Yuri gave condescending laugh, "Looks like neither of you drew something substantial, well is it my turn?"

Nazo grit his teeth, "Turn en-"

Just then, a bright light burst from Yuzu's bracelet causing Nazo to cover his eyes, when the light dimmed, Yuri was nowhere to be seen. Instead some guy on a motorcycle was in front of them. The boy got off it and started heading towards Yuzu, shouting "Rin! Rin!"

Nazo stepped in front of her, hold out his hand to stop the mysterious figure. The boy complained about him getting in the way. Before Nazo could comment, Yuzu's bracelet shined once more, making the boy in front of Nazo disappear. As the light faded once more a shout of "YUZU, NAZO!" entered their ears. At the top of the glacier stood Yuya Sakaki, along with Gongenzaka, waving at them. Yuya slid down the glacier and ran towards them, "You guys ok?"

Yuzu gave him a weary smiled, "Yuya… I knew you would come…" As soon as she said those words, she fainted into Yuya's arms. Yuya looked alarmed before Nazo calmed him down and told him she had just finished an intense duel. Nazo suggested that they catch up with each other, in which Yuya readily agreed to. So Yuya picked up and carried Yuzu surprisingly bridal style, he would later claim that it was because if Yuzu figured out that he had felt her chest, even against his back, she would kill him. The two then started to walk back up to Gongenzaka while discussing what had happened yesterday.

-§-

Yuri opened his eyes to find himself not in front of a nuisance and his target, but somewhere else. Yuri sighed as he went to activate his duel disk to take him back to academia, "I guess it was alright," mutter Yuri as he tapped the duel disk to start the transfer, "the deck that the professor wanted me to test was ok… but…." He gave a malicious smile, "Next time… I will trash them with my own deck."

-§-

And there is chapter 11. Honestly, I don't like this ending. The original ending was having Nazo faint instead of Yuzu, since he was supposed to take a lot of damage in the duel. Coupled with the fact he was running around all night dueling people, he would have fainted just as Yuya showed up. Unfortunately, I could not re-arrange the duel in a way so that Nazo would take damage. Yuri is ruthless, and if he has a chance to K.O. someone, he will take it.

Either way, the way it ended up was less than appealing to me, with Nazo at 4000 lp at the end. I did not make Yuzu faint because she is a "frail damsel in distress." She fainted because 3000 points of total damage against a duelist that causes real damage is not the best for your health.

I am sorry if this disappoints some people, but this fanfiction will start coming out every other week instead of weekly. A project has come up and I need to help with and organize it, as well as come up with a whole new idea for it. From the looks of it, I am not sure when this project will end, but hopefully it does not force me to stop posting this fanfiction.

As always, if you enjoyed it, please leave a review. If you disliked it, tell me how I could do better. If card count or rulings were off, give a review or shoot me a PM.

Thanks to Shimmering Sky and Piecakes for reviewing chapter 10! It is greatly appreciated.


	12. To the XYZ Dimension

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

-§-

Nazo was tried, mentally and physically. It had been a long night and he wanted to sleep a bit, but he was forced to keep awake and learning what had happened the previous day. At this point Yuya and Gongenzaka were allowing him to rest a bit. Yuya's arms were a bit sore as well from carrying Yuzu.

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "Two souls within you and something much darker underneath? That sounds ominous."

Yuya sighed, "I know… but there is not much I can do about it… "

Gongenzaka nodded solemnly, "There was also the mysterious dragon that Yuya summoned. I have never seen anything like it."

Yuya sighed, "Ah, and two new pendulum scales to boot…" Yuya took out the cards and showed them to him.

Nazo frowned, "To use a Xyz monster as a material for an XYZ summon? Normally that can only done in rank ups like my Gaia Dragon, or Kurosaki's raid raptors."

Yuya shrugged, "The idea of using synchro summoning two XYZ monsters was unimaginable until you did it."

Nazo frowned, "That is different and you know it. Mysterious cards aside, you're telling me the three knights were carded?"

Yuya wore a pained expression, "Yeah… I wasn't able to save them."

Nazo grit his teeth, realizing he shouldn't have said that, "Don't worry, I am sure that there must be some way to save them."

Yuya looked at Nazo, "And what if there isn't?"

Nazo looked away, "let's hope there is and leave it at that…"

Yuya and Gongenzaka nodded. Nazo stood up, signaling that they should start moving and soon the three continued onward towards the Volcano Area.

-§-

After they had been found by Yuya and Gongenzaka, they headed towards the Volcano Area only to find Sora across the lava river and Kurosaki Shun and others dueling up top on a rocky cliff. Yuya pursued Sora, leaving Yuzu in Nazo's care, while Gongenzaka headed off towards Kurosaki. Nazo could only lean again a rock face and wait patiently with Yuzu until those two returned. That wasn't to say that he wasn't paying attention. He saw multiple light pillars go up to where Gongenzaka had gone, signifying that someone was pendulum summoning. He also saw that Kurosaki Shun used RaidRaptor Revolution Falcon, to wipe out his foes. They crew had come back and found Nazo motioning towards a cave, telling them Yuya had gone down below.

Some of them ran down towards the cave below, while a girl who looked similar to Yuzu walked over and sat beside Yuzu. This girl wore what Yuzu had worn when the tournament, suggesting maybe that they had switched outfits at one point.

Nazo tiredly raised an eyebrow, "I doubt it, but are you a long lost twin or something?"

The girl shook her head, "My name is Serena, and I come from the fusion dimension…"

Nazo narrowed his eyes quickly went to activate his duel disk, but was stopped by Serena shaking her head and waving her hand.

"I only came here to defeat the XYZ remnants that are here, but Yuzu here," Serena motioned to the unconscious girl between them, "told me that the soldiers that went to the XYZ dimension to conquer it instead conducted a 'hunting game' and obliterated the people, regardless of them being a duelist or not. Now my mission is to talk to Kurosaki and find out if this is true or not."

Nazo leaned back against the wall, "Well from what he said during his first duel, that sounds like what happened…"

TIMES UP!

The world around them was covered in light as the city changed back to its normal. Nazo slowly stood up, and let out a held breath. He peeked over the edge to find the majority of the group behind Yuya. Sora was nowhere to be seen.

"Congratulations, you all pass."

Nazo looked to his side to see the one and only, Akaba Reiji. The red scarfed boy continued, "You all have done well, you repelled the invading Fusion Dimension forces."

Sawatari laughed, "Of course we did, that means we get to be part of your lancers now, right?"

Yuya frowned, "Lancers? What is this about?"

Reiji continued, "It is just as I said, you, who have held off the invasion did an admirable job. Since you have succeeded where even the youth division failed, you all have the honor of being admitted into the force to repel interdimensional invaders, the Lancers."

Yuya frowned, "Interdimensional invaders… Wait… you knew they were invading!? You didn't tell us about this?!"

Yuya scowl severely and started to stalk towards Reiji, but a groaning made Yuya cut off and hurry over to Yuzu's side, who was just coming to.

Nazo took notice of this and took control of the conversation, "As much as I would love to talk about this in the middle of the street, how about we move this conversation somewhere more private?"

Reiji nodded, "It is as you say, but first you all need to reappear in the stadium to wrap up the championships."

Nazo nodded, and the group headed back to the stadium.

-§-

The group stood in an empty room located somewhere in the LDS building. The entire group knew all of it now. The dimensions, the invasion and destruction of the XYZ dimension, the plan Reiji had come up with to repel the Fusion forces, everything.

Yuya frowned, "So your plan now is to use us, the 'Lancers' to defend against any other invading dimension?"

Reiji nodded, "That is correct."

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "not to downplay any of our achievements… but why not have pro duelists become lancers? Like Strong Ishijima?"

Yuya gave him a side glance.

Nazo corrected himself, "On second thought, Ishijima was not the greatest, but my point still stands, why us rather than certified pro duelists?"

Reiji shook his head, "The techniques and skills they have obtained have made them stagnant, and they will only duel based on their abilities. On the other hand, all of you have the power to adapt, to change based on your opponents. In time, you all will grow far stronger that any of the pros."

Yuzu spoke up, "So does that mean that we are just going to wait around until another attack comes?"

Reiji shook his head, "No, tomorrow, I am going to mobilize the lancers to go into different dimensions."

Yuya crossed his arms, "Aren't we supposed to be protecting this dimension? It kind of defeats the purpose to go away from the thing you're trying to protect."

Reiji sighed, "It is highly unlikely that the fusion dimension will launch an attack in the near future. If I know the professor like I do, he will take some time to reevaluate his troops before even considering launching another attack. We can use this time to travel to the other two dimensions. We can gather allies."

Nazo frowned, "Wait, I thought the XYZ dimension was destroyed… Why are we going there?"

Reiji looked at Nazo, "While that dimension has been attacked by Academia already, people still live there. The people who survived are strong, as you can tell by Kurosaki Shun."

Nazo glanced at the aforementioned person, and had to agree, if people were as strong as Kurosaki, they would make incredible allies in the fight against the fusion dimension.

Reiji turned to face the group, "While you all know this, most of you will be given a choice. Not all of you will want to risk your lives in a land far away from home. Some of you may choose to stay behind. If you choose to do so, nobody will blame you. I ask each of you to go home and think about this choice. You may tell your parents the bare bones explanation, but the choice is ultimately yours. If you do choose to fight as a Lancer, please meet in front of LDS at 10 am tomorrow."

With those words, the entire group was dismissed. Nazo walked along with Yuya, Yuzu, and Gongenzaka under the night sky.

Nazo sighed, "So what do you guys think?"

Yuya gave a tired sigh while rubbing his eyes, "Well, it certainly was eye opening. I still don't like the fact that Reiji knew the fact that the Fusion dimension would attack and let it happen. He could have chosen a much better way than sacrificing so many people…"

Yuzu nodded at this, "So many innocent people were carded Nazo…it may have been a selection process, but…"

Nazo's shoulders slumped, in the end it was like his actions didn't matter at all. True he had 'saved' four people or so, but in the grand total, it had not been much.

"Well," stated Nazo as he looked up at the stars, "What are you guys going to do? You want to go to another dimension and gather allies, or do you want to stay here and stay safe?"

Gongenzaka clenched his fist, "There are injustices being done across the dimensions, to make sure such a thing doesn't happen in our own world, I will travel to find allies."

Yuzu frowned, "We all heard the stories from Kurosaki, how horrible it was to have your homeland taken over… I don't want my family and my friends to ever experience something like that, so I will fight to prevent that from happening."

Yuya nodded, "Yuto entrusted me with his card and his will, to bring smiles to the world with dueling. I will do whatever I can with my power to make that dream a reality."

Nazo looked at all his friends, "then I guess it's decided, I will see all of you at 10AM then."

The group all looked and nodded before parting heading home.

-§-

When Nazo arrived home, his father and mother were waiting for him. His mother walked forward and embraced him in a long hug. He was showered with praise and congratulations for passing the semi-finals and for being accepted into the lancers.

Nazo smiled and patted his mom on the back, "Thanks mom, thanks dad."

His mother smiled at him before bidding both his father and him goodnight. Nazo's father smiled and motioned for Nazo to sit down. After Nazo had taken a seat, Nazo's father asked him what had happened during the entire semi-finals. Nazo went into a long winded explanation, ending with how they had met up with Reiji when the tourney ended.

"That is about it… I think," said Nazo.

His father nodded, "I see, so you will be heading out at 9:30 AM right?"

Nazo nodded, "yeah… I decided to go."

His father gave a soft smile, "Do what you want to do, don't let anything hold you back, just, come back safe, ok? I don't know what your mother and I would do if we lost you."

Nazo nodded, "I promise dad."

His father nodded, and after a hug and a good night, Nazo was left alone it the living room.

-§-

"I am glad all of you showed up."

It was the next day, at the very top of the LDS tower, Reiji spoke to nine other people. Nazo had glanced at all the other Lancers. There was obviously Yuya, Yuzu, Gongenzaka, and himself. Included in the group was Sawatari Shingo, Serena, the ninja Tsukikage, the LDS transfer student Dennis Macfield, and of course the ever mysterious Kurosaki Shun.

Reiji moved to hand back the duel disks that he had taken from them prior, "Your duel disks have now been upgraded, it, as well as the wearer, can jump to different dimensions. Your disk can now generate an action field as well. Remember that Action cards are a weapon that others have not seen before, use them to your advantage. "

After that, Reiji introduced them to Reira, the champion of the junior finals. He went on to tell them that the young boy would be joining them.

Shun scowled, "We are going to war; there is no need to for us to bring kids!"

Reiji shook his head, "I can assure you that he is as capable as everyone else here, though you won't be with him anyway."

Nazo watched as Reiji motioned to a group of backpacks lying on the ground, "Those bags contain rations as well as sleeping gear and cooking wear, as well as other necessities. Those were prepared for the group going to the XYZ dimension. Personally, I will be spearheading the trip to the synchro dimension, while Kurosaki will lead the group for the XYZ dimension."

Kurosaki headed over to the bags and strapped one on.

Reiji continued, "You may choose which dimension you go to, Reira is coming with me, so that leaves 8 of you, each of you choose a party.

Yuya immediately moved to join Kurosaki, who was joined by Yuzu and Gongenzaka soon after. Nazo shrugged and turned to watch as Tsukikage, and Sawatari Shingo made their way next to Reiji. When Serena made her way towards Reiji, Dennis immediately followed. Nazo frowned at his actions, he personally would have wanted to see the Synchro Dimension, but being with his friends would not be bad at all. With that decided Nazo walked over to the XYZ dimension group and picked up a backpack like the rest had done.

Reiji nodded, "alright, come gather your Dimensional Mover cards."

Everyone was handed a certain type of card. It was a green card with a circuit board-like design on it.

Reiji looked at each of them, "that card will transport you to your desired dimension, just insert it into your duel disk and the rest will be taken care of."

Nazo raised his eyebrows, "While that is neat and all… how do we get back?"

Reiji nodded, "Look through your D-pad now, there should be a new section called 'warp.' That functions as your way back."

Nazo nodded, "Alright, sounds good."

Reiji looked around, "Any other questions?"

Kurosaki thought a bit before raising a question of his own, "Hypothetically, let's say that the XYZ dimension group runs into some trouble, is it possible for someone from the Synchro Dimension group to come in and provide reinforcements?"

Reiji nodded, "Technically yes, but it is complex. For now, just assume there will be no support from the other side."

Shun nodded, "Alright."

Reiji looked around again, "Since that is all for questions, Synchro Dimension Group time to head out. The other group will mobilize in 5 minutes."

The group nodded and inserted the card, and after a flash of bright light, they were gone.

Shun looked towards his own group, before speaking, "Well, since we have time, I should explain something." With that he motioned Nazo over to him.

Shun activated his duel disk and told Yuya, Yuzu, and Nazo to do the same. Shun tapped his duel disk until it stated, _Advanced Tag Duel_

Kurosaki drew his initial hand, "Advanced Tag Duels are the set way to do double duels over in the XYZ Dimension. The rules are the same, except you and your partner share the same field, and have 8000 life points in total."

Kurosaki held out a card, "I summon out Raid-Raptor Vanishing Lanius!"

The monster appeared on the field with a screech. Nazo looked down at his disk and to his surprise, a red X appeared over one of his available monster slots.

Kurosaki set two cards, "I end my turn, we are not really dueling though, I am just getting you guys to understand the mechanic."

Yuya drew and played a monster and well as a magic, before ending his turn. After Yuzu went, the duel was cancelled.

Nazo looked at his D-pad, "I think it is about time to head out, don't you think?"

The others nodded in agreement. The five all stood in a circle, and in one fluid motion, all five slotted the card into the disk, and they were overtaken by a bright, white light. When Nazo opened his eye he was met with a desolate landscape. Destruction was everywhere he looked. Nazo turned to find Yuya surveying the destruction as well.

Nazo frowned, where were the others?

"Yuya, do you know where everyone else is?"

The boy turned to Nazo and shook his head, "No, when I opened my eyes, it was just us here."

Nazo scowled, "great… could have mentioned that Reiji… well no point moping around, let's start looking for the others… or someone for that matter."

Yuya agreed and the duo started to wander the ruins around them.

Nazo sighed, "In hindsight, really wish I asked Kurosaki for some landmarks or some directions before we left… everything here is just rubble and burnt ground."

Yuya shrugged, "there is not much we can do about it, let's just hope that the other three appeared with each other, and well as count our blessings that we appeared near each other, rather than alone.

Nazo nodded, "When you put it that way, I guess I should consider myself lucky."

It was at that moment that both of them heard marching feet. They turned to find two Obelisk force members behind them, wearing malicious grins.

One of the soldiers stepped forward, "Where are you going? Wouldn't you want a nice home in a safe card?"

Nazo rolled his eyes, "So kind of you to offer, but I will have to decline." Nazo promptly activated his duel disk, followed quickly by both Obelisk forces and Yuya.

_Advanced Tag Duel Active Obelisk Force vs. Prey_

DUEL!

Obelisk Force 8000

1: Cards 5

2: Cards 5

Yuya and Nazo 8000

Yuya Cards 5

Nazo Cards 5

Nazo frowned as Yuya drew his opening hand, _"What was with that announcement?"_

_Y_uya looked at his hand, "I, using the Scale 3 Destruction Magician and Scale 8 Creation Magician, set my pendulum scale!"

The two monsters rose up and a pendulum appeared and swung innocently between them. "With this I can summon multiple monsters between levels 4-7 simultaneously! Swing, Pendulum of Souls! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Come forth my most faithful monster!"

A streak of light landed beside him and Odd-eyes Pendulum Dragon appeared.

Yuya took his two remaining cards and slotted them into his duel disk, "I set two and end my turn."

An Obelisk Force member drew.

He held out a card, "I summon out Antique Gear Hound Dog!" When my opponent has a monster on the field, I can inflict 600 points of damage!"

The mechanical monster shot a flame at the duo and inflicted 600 points to them.

"I set one card and end the turn."

Nazo grabbed his top card, "Draw!"

After scanning his hand, Nazo selected one, "I play Dragon Ravine! I discard my Phalanx to get Dragunity Dux to hand!"

The field spell appeared above Nazo as he slotted a card into the grave and retrieved a card from his deck. He turned the card around and played it, summoning out the eagle-garbed man, which equipped itself with phalanx.

"I summon out Phalanx and synchro climb to level 8! Come forth! Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The white dragon descended down and roared. Nazo pointed at Odd-eyes. "Battle! Odd-eyes will attack your monster!"

The Obelisk force held out his hand, "Reverse Card Open, Negate attack!" The dragon was repelled due to an invisible barrier. Nazo scowled, "Turn end!"

The other soldier smirked, "My turn, Draw!"

The solider drew and looked at his hand, before playing a monster, "I summon out Antique Gear Hound Dog! I use both of my monster's effects! I inflict 1200 points of damage!"

Both dogs launched a flame, contacting right in front of Yuya and Nazo, causing an explosion. The Obelisk force smirked and held out his hand, "I activate Antique Gear Hound Dog's other effect! When I control another Antique gear monster, I can fuse for one fusion monster in my extra deck using cards in my hand or my side of the field! I fuse together the Antique Gear Hound Dog in my hand and one on the field to summon out Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog!"

The blue clothed man laughed as the double headed dog appeared on the field, "I activate de-fusion! I return my Double Bite hound dog to the extra deck to summon out the two hound dogs!"

The larger monster disappeared but the two smaller ones took its place.

Yuya raised his eyebrow, "Why would he do that?"

Nazo scowled, "Brace yourself!"

The obelisk force grinned, "I activate the two hound dogs that were just returned to the field! I inflict 1200 more points of damage!"

The pair of hound dogs launched more flames at the duo dropping their life points to 5000 points.

The man smirked, "Finally, I activate messenger of peace! No player can attack with monsters with 1500 or more attack points. Every one of our standby phases, we can pay 100 life points or destroy this card. Turn end."

Yuya frowned as he drew.

Obelisk Force 8000

1: Cards: 4

2: Cards: 2

Yuya and Nazo: 5000

Yuya Cards: 1

Nazo Cards: 4

Yuya frowned at his drawn card, "Turn end."

The obelisk force laughed, "Draw! First I pay 100 life points to keep Messenger of Peace on the field, then I play another Antique Gear hound dog and activate all four Antique Gear Hound Dog's effects! You take 2400 points of damage!"

"Reverse Card open!" cut in Yuya as he tapped his duel disk, "I activate Fiendish Chain, which negates the effects of one of the hound dogs!"

Three of the mechanical monstrosities fired a flame at the group, but the fourth one became entangled in dark chains. The obelisk force shrugged, no matter, "I fuse activate the other effect of the Antique Gear Hound Dog I just played, and fuse it with the one you negated."

The two monsters fused together to once again form Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog. The obelisk force held out a card, "I play de-fusion and bring back two Antique Gear Hound Dogs! I activate both of their effects! Eat 1200 points of damage!" Both monsters fired inflicted the pair with more damage.

Nazo coughed as the smoke settled, "you ok over there Yuya?"

Yuya nodded, "yeah… but we need to do something fast or we are done for…"

The obelisk force was not done, "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon, and I destroy your field spell!"

The card above Nazo shattered causing Nazo to flinch slightly. The obelisk force smirked, "Turn End!"

Nazo drew his next card and looked at his hand. Currently there was nothing that really helped him. Nazo glanced at the field. Yuya has one face down, a dead fiendish chain his scales and his Odd-eyes, while Nazo had his Stardust Spark Dragon and a facedown. Nazo frowned, _"What can I do? Wait… those scales…"_

Nazo held out a card in his hand, "I summon out Dragunity dux which equips itself with Phalanx!"

The eagle garbed man appeared and once again brandished the knife that appeared before him. He threw it to the side and summoned out the small dragon.

Nazo held out another card, "I equip my Dux with Dragunity Divine Lance! With it I can attach one Dragunity dragon type tuner monster from my deck to him! I choose Phalanx once more and I bring that to the field!"

The same small purple dragon appeared on the field. Nazo's eyes flashed, "I overlay my two Dragunity Phalanxes! XYZ Summon! Come forth! Rank 2 Dragunity Core!

The two small dragons turned into green streaks and disappeared into the portal at Nazo's feet. A large Green crystal with black overlay units came out. Nazo held out his hand, "I use the effect of Dragunity Core! I detach both overlay units to add one level 8 or lower Dragon-type or 'Dragunity' monster to my hand from my deck! I chose Dragunity Arma Mystletainn!"

Both overlay units disappeared and Nazo's deck ejected the appropriate card. Nazo grabbed it while saying, "I tribute my dux on the field to play out my Mystletainn! Who gets and summons out Phalanx!"

The yellow dragon appeared followed by the small tan armored dragon.

"I tune my Mystletainn with my Phalanx! Synchro Summon! Scrap Dragon!" The junk infused dragon appeared and roared. Nazo held out his hand, "I activate Scrap Dragon's effect and Stardust Spark Dragon's effects! Spark prevents destruction of one face up card per turn! I target itself! Scrap Dragon can destroy one card on either side of the field! I choose my Stardust Spark and your messenger of peace!"

Spark generated aura around itself and Scrap Dragon roared, but it was cut off by glowing chains.

An Obelisk Force member was smirking with a face up Fiendish Chain on the field, "Sorry I can't allow you to do that…"

Nazo scowled, "I end my turn."

The Obelisk Force member laughed, "This is the end! I pay 100 points for Messenger of Peace then I use all four Hound dog's effects to inflict 2400 points of damage!

Nazo tapped his duel disk, "Fiendish chain!" One of the dogs was bound as the other three fired, inflicting 1800 points of damage to Yuya and Nazo.

The Obelisk force scowled, "Next turn your finished, turn end."

Yuya breathed in, "Draw!"

Obelisk Forces 7800

1: 2

2: 2

Yuya and Nazo 200

Yuya: 2

Nazo: 1

Yuya smiled, "Nice set up Nazo."

Nazo nodded back, "you're welcome, now finish this!"

Yuya nodded, "Magician of Destruction, who watches over contrast! Unite the stars under your sharp judgement! The pendulum effect of Destruction Magician! Once per turn, I can target one XYZ monster on the field and make it gain a level equal to the rank it has! I target Dragunity Core!"

The pendulum monster held up its bladed staff and fired three balls of light at Dragunity Core. The monster's rank designation became a level icon.

Yuya motioned to the other scale, "Magician of Creation who watches over harmony! Fill the heavens with stars using your arcane powers! The pendulum effect of Creation Magician! I can make the level of one monster on the field the same as another! I choose to make Dragunity Core's level the same as Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The woman magician drew back its bow and fired at Dragunity Core, increasing its level to 7.

Yuya breathed in once more, "I overlay the level 7 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon with the level 7 Dragunity Core! O heterochromatic-eyed dragon! Unleash your wrath to completely eradicate your defiant enemies! Xyz Summon! Come forth, Rank 7! Dragon whose eyes glitter with rage! Supreme King Black Dragon - Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon!"

The large black dragon descended and roared with terrifying power. Nazo's eyes were wide with both awe and fear.

Yuya held out his hand, "First Odd-eyes Rebellion Dragon's effect activates! When this card is summoned using an XYZ monster as a XYZ material I destroy all level 7 or lower monsters on my opponent's side of the field! For every monster destroyed my opponent takes 1000 points of damage!"

The monster roared and sent shock waves to the other side of the field destroying all 4 monsters and inflicting 4000 points to the two opponents.

Yuya clenched his fist, "When Dragunity Core is an XYZ unit, the monster that is summoned gains this effect! All other cards on the field are negated! Negation Wave!" A wave of energy radiated around the black dragon passing over every card on the field and forcing violet energy through it, negating the effects. The card messenger of peace fizzled and turned to gray scale.

Yuya held out his hand, "Finally, since I successfully destroyed monster on your side of the field, this turn, this card may make up to 3 attacks for each battle phase this turn! Finish this! Battle! I attack with Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon! Rebellious Wrath Strike Disobey!

The other side did not stand a chance, the dragon charged up its wings to fly and charged at the opponents with the fangs near its mouth glowing brightly. It reached the enemies and slashed upward, dealing the finishing blow and ending the duel. The holograms started to fade as Nazo and Yuya looked at their opponents, they were unconscious on the ground.

Nazo sighed, "What do you want to do with them? We could loot their decks so they can't fight again."

Yuya frowned, "I wouldn't feel right doing that, but I guess we have no choice."

Just then, their duel disks glowed and they vanished. Nazo scowled, "Retreating huh?"

Yuya shrugged, "not much we can do now, come on, let's see if we can find the others… or anyone else for that matter."

Nazo nodded and they started to walk, wondering what was in store for them in this world.

-§-

So… I said 2 weeks and it became 3 weeks… whoops. Reason for this is because 2 huge school projects were assigned and I was forced to set everything else aside to tackle them. One was metallurgy and one was history. Needless to say, they were both long assignments, and I finally finished the last one yesterday. So I finally finished this chapter only now.

I am sure you noticed but the effects of both Destruction and Creation take after the anime as well as the names. I am not going to go through the process of typing out Xiangke and Xiangsheng every single time.

I apologize for the ruling mess up in chapter 11, it has been fixed, some of the dialogue and actions have been changed, but nothing that impacts the story too much. If you want you can relook at it, if not, you have not missed much.

To the Guest reviewer for chapter 10. Please contact me with your actual account. I will give you an answer then. I would PM you back… but I cannot PM a guest reviewer.

As always, if you enjoyed it, please leave a review. If you disliked it, tell me how I could do better. If card count or rulings were off, give a review or shoot me a PM. Thank you to Shimmering Sky for Reviewing! It is always highly appreciated.


	13. The Phantom Knights Appear

I do not own Yugioh Arc-V, but this is a story of my own creation. Please do not use any materials of this including cards and action fields without permission.

§

Nazo and Yuya walked across the barren landscape that was the XYZ dimension. Rubble and ruins were the main sight everywhere one looked, make it dreary and forgettable. Nazo coughed once again as wind kicked up dust into his face, "I think I understand why Kurosaki has that duster now."

Yuya cracked a smile, "ah, but that really doesn't help us, does it?"

Nazo sighed, they had been walking for hours and nothing had come of it. All they found was more ruins, more abandoned buildings and no allies. Fortunately, they had not run into any more Obelisk force soldiers either.

Nazo stopped as Yuya was subjected to another coughing fit from the dust kicked up by the wind, "Why don't we take a break? Let's go into one of these buildings and check our provisions."

Yuya gave a tired nod and they trudged into a nearby building before unloading their packs to look inside. Akaba Reiji had seen fit to provide them with multiple canned foods as well as plenty of bottles of water. A Swiss army knife was packed in as well. A small camp burner as well as a pot was stored inside to heat up or cook any of the canned foods. A small water filter was stashed away in one of the side pouches. On top of it all was a sleeping roll for rest.

Nazo held up a can of spam and sighed, "I know that we needed preservatives, but this is LDS… wasn't there anything else?"

Yuya shrugged, "We should be happy that he even thought about giving us provisions, maybe Kurosaki talked to him about this."

Nazo shrugged before uncapping a bottle of water and taking a swig, "I guess, but now that we have checked our provisions, we still have no idea which way we are heading."

Yuya sighed, "I couldn't tell you if I tr- GAH!" The pendulum duelist suddenly grabbed his head in apparent pain.

Nazo ran over, "Yuya, what's wrong? Answer me!"

Yuya let out a hiss of pain and shook his head violently before suddenly dropping his arms to his sides and panting with apparent exhaustion.

Nazo frowned, not too sure how he could help, "Yuya, are you ok now?'

"I…" Yuya started before trailing off, "I think that you better talk to him yourself."

Nazo could only scrunch his eyebrows in confusion as Yuya closed his eyes once more and breathed in slowly before exhaling. Nazo was not ready at all when the boy opened his eyes, revealing gray irises.

Nazo jumped back in alarm and was about to activate his duel disk when the boy held up his hands to show Nazo that he meant no harm.

The body of Yuya Sakaki gave a small smile, "Nice to meet you, Yuya has allowed me to take control for a while. I can guide you around here. The name is Yuto."

Nazo frowned and narrowed his eyes, "What the hell are you talking about?"

Yuto gave an uncomfortable laugh, "I guess it would be better to explain."

The two talked briefly on what had occurred on that fateful night. How the two had somehow fused together and that was the reason behind Yuya's ownership of Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon.

"So now, Yuya and I can talk to each other within our own mind," said Yuto, wrapping up his explanation.

Nazo pondered this for a bit before nodding, "I can see why Yuya didn't tell me this before, seems to be quite a troubling, if not confusing situation.

Yuto nodded, "yeah, Yuya and I are trying to get used to it ourselves… but this is certainly better than you two running around blind.

Nazo laughed, "You got us there, so where do we head first?"

Yuto smirked, "For now, let's go to the duel school I attended, I have some business there, and if we are lucky we might find someone there as well."

Nazo frowned, "Business?"

Yuto nodded, "I have a spare deck in my locker there… if we are going to get into fights, I want to be able to use a deck I know well."

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "You can't switch back to Yuya?"

Yuto nodded, "I can, but when I first came out I was quite disoriented. I do not know if that is because I have not possessed a body in a while or if it will happen every time we switch. I do not want Yuya to come out disoriented when we are about to fight."

Nazo tilted his head, "Well that certainly is problematic."

Yuto nodded, "Indeed, either way, we have some ground to cover, let's head out."

After scanning the outside for any sign of threats, the two travelled around the ruined world. Yuto pulled down the goggles to prevent dust getting in his eyes with Nazo using his uniform as a type of dust mask. They climbed over rubble and debris as Yuto pointing out land marks that was once impressive structures of long past.

Yuto sighed as he slid down a slope, "When the academia forces came, we were not prepared. Wave after wave of monsters attacking all of us, and all we could do in the beginning was run."

Nazo winced at the sorrow in his voice, "I don't know what to say."

Yuto shrugged, "there is not much to say. Eventually we started to fight back, but at that point it was just to survive… we couldn't retake our homeland… there really was nothing left to retake.

Nazo clenched his fists, "I can't even image what that would be like, to lose everything so quickly, in an instant."

Yuto nodded silently, "While some people tried to resist our opponent's oppressive rule… many people fell against them. We lost a lot of good comrades… even non-combatants were carded. Kurosaki even lost his sister, kidnapped."

Nazo raised an eyebrow, "Kidnapped? Not carded?"

Yuto nodded, "Yeah, someone saw it happen, but was powerless to stop it."

Nazo frowned, "That reminds me, during the Maiami Championship when a lot of people were being carded, someone that looked like Yuya tried to kidnap Yuzu.

Yuto looked at Nazo, "Now that you mention her, Yuzu happens to look like Ruri, so much so that I was sure I had found her in Standard before she told me I was wrong…"

Nazo's eyes widened, "There was also Serena, she looked just like Yuzu as well, I also confused them during the Miami Championship."

Yuto furrowed his eyebrows, "That is weird… suppose there are connections?

Nazo shrugged, "Well if there are 4 different dimensions, if goes to say that there could be 4 people that are the 'you' of that dimension."

Yuto frowned, "It is possible. Coincidences like these don't happen by chance. You said there was someone that looked like Yuya and you said you dueled him right? Did he ride a motorcycle?"

Nazo shook his head, "No, I think he was that pawn of fusion though… he did use fusion monsters.

Yuto narrowed his eyes, "Actually, the pawn of fusion rides a motorcycle and uses synchro monsters. He calls himself Yugo."

Nazo scoffed, "As if this isn't confusing enough, so let's get this straight. "There are four people that look like Yuya including himself, and there are 3 people that look like Yuzu including herself. Serena said she was from the fusion dimension and clearly Ruri is from here. Is there going to be one from the synchro dimension?"

Yuto shrugged, "Maybe, as you said there could be a copy of every person in every dimension. Though, just for the record, I have not seen anyone that looks like you."

Nazo shrugged, "Eh, the world is a big place, even if a copy of me exists somewhere the probability of you seeing him is low.

Yuto nodded, "True, but enough theoretical talk, we are almost at the school." With those words, the two moved on, leaving Nazo to silently ponder the question he wanted to ask out loud.

"_If the two souls inside Yuya are himself and Yuto… what was the darkness inside him that Mieru had mentioned before?"_

-§-

The two finally arrived at the destroyed building that used to be a vibrant school. The two boys walked through desolate halls now heavy with dust and debris. After jumping over a particularly large concrete slab, Yuto pointed out lockers at the end of the hallway.

"My deck is in there, hold on while I get it." Yuto swiftly moved over to the lockers and after playing with the lock a bit, opened it and obtained a deck of cards. He moved through them slowly looking at cards carefully, making sure that everything was in order. After he checked through all of them, he placed it in one of the extra deck carrying pockets on his pants.

Yuto looked up, "Alright, we are good here, let's leave."

As the two started to walk out of the school, Nazo spoke up, "So where now?"

Yuto motioned forward, "While we were still in this world, we had a resistance base in that direction, it is our best bet to be able to find Shun."

Nazo nodded, "Alright, well then let's… oh no…"

Yuto glanced around to see a heavy smirking red clad duelist with academia duel disk smirking up at them.

"Well, well, well, looks like there is still some trash to clean up eh?" said the duelist as he activated him duel disk.

Nazo scowled, "Well at least it is only one of them."

"One of what now?"

The two boys turned around to see a yellow clad duelist behind them, same academia duel disk on his left arm.

Nazo muttered, "You have got to be kidding me," as he, Yuto, and the Yellow soldier activated their duel disks.

Duel!

Yuto and Nazo: 8000

Nazo Cards: 5

Yuto Cards: 5

Academia Members: 8000

Red Cards: 5

Yellow Cards: 5

Nazo's eyes narrowed, "I'll go first, I play Dragon Ravine, I discard tuner monster, Dragunity Phalanx to add Dragunity Dux to my hand!"

Above Nazo the Dragon Ravine card appeared. Nazo slotted a card into his graveyard and his deck spat out a card which he grabbed.

"I summon out Dragunity Dux which uses its effect to equip itself with one level 3 or lower dragon type Dragunity monster from the grave, I choose Dragunity Phalanx. The eagle garbed man appeared on the field and a knife appeared next to him which he grabbed.

"I activate Phalanx's effect! Dragunity Phalanx can summon himself to the field when he is a equip card!"

The knife was thrown to the ground and the purple dragon appeared.

Nazo held out his hand, "I now synchro climb to level 8! Come forth Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The image of Dragunity Knight -Vajrayana was seen briefly before Stardust Spark took the field. Glancing down at his hand Nazo grabbed two of them.

"I set two cards and I end my turn!"

The red jacketed boy stepped forward, "My move! Draw! I use polymerization to fuse my Submarieroid, Steamroid, and Drillroid to create Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill!"

The three cards appeared before him before swirling together to form a massive drill-like machine.

"Battle! Jumbo Drill attacks Stardust Spark Dragon!"

The drill monster started to power up its drill and started charging towards the white dragon.

Nazo shook his head, "I activate the effect of Stardust Spark Dragon! Once per turn, during either players turn, I can target one face up card; once during this turn that card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. I chose Stardust Spark itself!"

The dragon roared and a barrier fell around to protect it. The drill smashed into the barrier, shattering it, but Stardust Spark was unharmed.

The academia soldier scowled, "You still take the damage!"

Nazo and Yuto held up their arms to protect them from the shockwave that came at them, shaving away 500 life points.

The boy set his last two cards and ended his turn.

Yuto smirked, "My move! Draw!"

He scanned his hand for a second before smirking, "I play The Phantom Knights of Rugged Gloves!"

Two large gauntlets formed with some armor and a helmet all surrounded by blue flames.

Yuto held out another card, "When I control a 'Phantom Knights' card, I can summon out The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots!" A ghostly blue man garbed in brown clothes appeared on the field.

Yuto held out his hand, "I am overlaying my Phantom Knights of Rugged Gloves with my Phantom Knights of Silent Boots!"

The two monsters turned into purple streaks and entered a portal at Yuto's feet.

"Soul of warriors fallen on the battlefield, revive now and become light to rend the darkness! XYZ summon! Appear before us! Rank 3! The Phantom Knights of Break Sword!"

A horse and rider appeared from the portal. The horse however was made strictly of armor while the rider wielded a rather large sword. Where the head should be only blue flames emanated from the spot.

Yuto smiled, "When Rugged Gloves is used as a XYZ material, the XYZ monster gains 1000 attack!" A harsh blue glow enveloped Break Sword, increasing the attack by 1000.

Yuto clenched his fist, "Now I activate the effect of Break Sword! I detach one overlay unit to destroy one card on my field and one card on your field! I chose Stardust Spark Dragon and Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill! Lightning Break!"

The armored horseman raised its sword and called down lightning on the two cards. Yuto pointed at Stardust Spark, "I activate the effect of Stardust Spark Dragon! I chose to protect itself!"

A barrier once again fell over Stardust Spark as the lightning neared. The electricity struck the barrier causing it to shatter, but it left the white dragon unscathed. The other bolt crashed down on the large drill causing it to explode.

Nazo gave a thumbs up to Yuto, "Nice play!"

Yuto smirked, "Battle! Break Sword attacks directly!"

The monster charged forward, blade raised, poised to strike.

The red solder tapped his duel disk, "Trap card open! Negate attack! Your attack is canceled and your battle phase ends!

Yuto shrugged, "Turn End."

The yellow solder smirked, "My turn! Draw! I play Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

A small mechanical dog appeared on the field and howled.

The soldier continued, "When you control a monster Hound Dog's effect allows me to inflict you with 600 point of damage."

The dog launched flames at the duo, inflicting 600 more point of damage.

The yellow soldier held out another card, "I use double summon, which allows me to summon out another Antique Gear Hound Dog! I inflict another 600 points!"

Yuto's and Nazo's Life point counter lowered to 6300 points.

"I now fuse my two Hound Dogs on the field, and the one in my hand to summon out Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

The two dogs on the field swirled together with another that had appeared until a mechanical Cerberus like creature stood before them.

Nazo frowned, "An 1800 point monster that can battle three times during which we can't activate magic or trap cards… not too much of a threat."

The yellow soldier laughed, "Naïve! I use the other facedown! Call of the haunted! I summon back one Antique Gear Hound Dog, which inflicts you with 600 more points of damage!

Yuto and Nazo flinched as more life points were shaved away.

The yellow solder held out his hand, "I now fuse Antique Gear Hound Dog and Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog together to form Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog!"

A large mechanical three headed behemoth came to the field and roared.

The yellow soldier laughed, "When Ultimate Hound Dog comes to the field, it automatically halves the opponent's life points!" The dog breathed in and loosed a devastating flame that left the pair at 2850.

The soldier cackled again and held out one of his final two cards, I use De-fusion! I return my monster to the extra deck and bring back Antique Gear Hound Dog and Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog! Hound dog once again uses its effect and inflicts 600 points!"

The two dogs appeared once more and the smaller one breathed out fire, reducing the life points to 2250.

"Now by using Antique Gear Hound Dog's effect once more, I can fuse the two back together, Come forth! Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog!"

The large behemoth appeared once again roaring loudly.

The yellow soldier shouted, "Since Ultimate Hound Dog was summoned, another half of your life points are taken away."

Nazo's scowl deepened as their life points were reduced to 1125.

The yellow clad boy grinned maliciously, "When Ultimate Hound Dog attacks, you cannot activate spell or trap cards until the end of the damage step! Battle Ultimate Hound Dog attack Stardust Spark Dragon!"

Yuto grimaced, "I activate Stardust Spark Dragon's effect and use it on itself!"

The barrier was erected and Stardust avoided destruction, though the duo still took 300 points of damage.

The yellow soldier laughed, "Fools! Ultimate Hound Dog can attack 3 times per battle phase! Attack Stardust Spark Dragon once more!"

The beast breathed in flames and loosed them on the white dragon causing it to shatter into yellow shards.

Yuto frowned, "Nazo… sorry."

Nazo shook his head, "Don't worry about it…we still have life points, let's turn this around."

The yellow soldier laughed, "I set one card. Turn end."

Nazo glared at him, "My turn! Draw!"

Yuto and Nazo: 525

Nazo Cards: 2

Yuto Cards: 3

Academia Members: 8000

Red Cards: 0

Yellow Cards: 0

Nazo glanced at his hand, "I once again activate the field spell Dragon Ravine and I discard a card to get Dragunity Dux to my hand!"

Nazo's deck spat out the appropriate card. "Reverse Card open! Reckless Greed, I draw two more cards! Now I once again play Dragunity Dux and equip it with Phalanx!"

The monster came forth before grabbing the knife that was offered to it.

"Phalanx effect! I summon it out to the field!"

The purple dragon in tan armor appeared with a roar. I use Dragunity Arma Mystletainn's effect to get rid of Phalanx to summon itself to the field then equip Phalanx to it who is again summoned out!"

The yellow dragon brandishing a sword appeared and soon after Phalanx reappeared on the field.

Nazo held out his hand, "I synchro together Dux and Phalanx and synchro climb to level 8! Come forth Scrap Dragon!"

A large purple junk infused dragon appeared, steam leaking from one of its exposed pipes.

"I use Scrap Dragon's effect! Once per turn, I can target one card from my side of the field and one card on your side of the field, and destroy both of them. I target your face down and my Dragon Ravine!"

The card Nazo designated shattered into yellow shards which gathered into Scrap Dragon's mouth.

"Scrap Annihilator!"

Scrap Dragon shot out a beam and destroyed the facedown card on the opposing side of the field.

Nazo motioned to Break Sword, "I now use the effect of Break Sword to target one card on each side of the field to destroy both of them. I choose Scrap Dragon as well as Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog! Lighting Break!"

Break Sword raised up its sword and lightning was called down once more. This time both bolts of electricity struck true and both exploded in a grand spectacle.

Nazo tapped his duel disk, "Since one of my synchro monsters were destroyed by a card effect, I can activate Shadow Impulse! This allows me to summon a Synchro monster from my extra deck that is the same level and type as the monster destroyed!"

Nazo held up his desired card, "Rend, Strike, Destroy! The dragon of immortality will reign on! Come forth and put an end to all who dare oppose you! Appear now, Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons!"

The twin headed purple dragon descended to the field with a terrifying roar. Nazo smiled, "Battle! I attack directly with Dragunity Arma Mystletainn!"

The dragon ran up and slashed the opposing duelists.

Nazo pointed at Break Sword, "Battle! Break Sword attacks directly! Phantom Slash!" The monster charged forward and slashed dropping the academia soldier's life points to 2900.

"Now Beelze, finish this! Chaos Dark Burning!"

The purple dragon breathed in before firing black fire on the opponents whipping out their life points.

As the two soldiers tried to stagger to their feet, Yuto and Nazo approached them.

"Give it up," said Yuto as he narrowed his eyes, "There is no way you can win in the state you are in."

Nazo glared out his own opponent, "We are taking your decks and duel disks, don't expect to be dueling anytime soon."

The red solder scowled, "Take this!"

The soldier threw a punch at Nazo who managed to dodge, but could not stop the other boy from running towards Yuto.

"Yuto look out!" called Nazo as he tried to give chase.

The soldier shoved Yuto out of the way and the two soldiers started to run. Yuto cursed and the two started to give chase. As the two soldiers rounded a corner, some yelling was heard before two screams and a bright light shone. Nazo's eyes widened as two cards fluttered from around the corner.

Nazo picked up his pace and turned to find a boy causally walking towards him.

He had light blue-grey eyes, pale skin and blonde hair that curled up in a point with a dark green spiked front and bangs. He wore black trench coat with a high collar over a grey shirt and white pants with black boots. Yuto rounded the corner and also stopped in shock.

"Kaito?"

The boy glared at Yuto, "yeah? What of it?"

Yuto smiled, "has the resistance moved anytime recently? We just got here and…"

Kaito narrowed his eyes, "I am not part of the resistance anymore, so don't waste my time, get in my way and I will card you."

Nazo and Yuto backed up slightly as the boy passed by them. Nazo swallowed before speaking, "Yuto… who was that?"

Yuto sighed, "Kaito Tenjo. He was a famous professional duelist in Heartland City before the invasion of Duel Academy. He was one of the most inspiring people around, everyone wanted to be him, if not fight him. After the invasion, he joined up with the resistance… but it seems now that he no longer with them. Kurosaki and I lost touch with everyone when we went to the Standard dimension."

Nazo frowned, "Well this sucks… but maybe he has seen some of our friends. We can ask."

Yuto gave a grimace, "He did just threaten to card us if we got in his way you know…"

Nazo sighed, "yeah… but we have no other leads…"

Nazo ran after the boy, "Hey! Wait!"

The boy whipped around a finger on his duel disk and a glare on his face.

Nazo waved his hands desperately, "Wait, wait! I just want to know if you have seen some people! Specifically today!"

Kaito scoffed, "The only people I have seen were scum from the academy and you two… everyone was carded, and if you want, I can offer the same service to you."

Nazo backed away slowly, "No… that's ok… but I'll have to pass on that offer… thanks anyway."

Nazo trudged back to Yuto before saying, "next time tell me to listen to your advice."

Yuto gave a small laugh, "sure thing, I will bring you to where the resistance base was before we went to the Standard Dimension, though it could have moved…"

Nazo winced, "Let's hope not… I hope Yuzu and Gongenzaka are ok… I am kind of worried for them."

Yuto nodded, "yeah, Yuya has also expressed his worry. I certainly hope we find them sooner than later, at least before the academy forces.

Nazo sighed, "Well… there is a chance that they transported with Kurosaki, so they should be safe with him, and he certainly knows the layout of this place."

Yuto nodded, "That is true, but I also worry that he may still be distracted… When Ruri was kidnapped he could not sit still."

Nazo shrugged, "I don't have any siblings, but I think I can understand the feelings."

Yuto clenched his fist, "I don't have any siblings either… but Ruri and I were close before the academy attacked… I think I can say that I felt just as much pain as Shun when we found out that Ruri had gone missing."

Nazo nodded, "don't worry we will find her… our job as lancers is not only to protect our dimension, but to take down the Academia's forces. When we take them down, we will get her back, guaranteed."

Yuto smiled, "yeah, your right… well then, that is enough moping around for now, come on, we have some distance to cover before it gets dark."

Nazo nodded and the two started to walk.

§

As always, if you enjoyed it, please leave a review. If you disliked it, tell me how I could do better. If card count or rulings were off, give a review or shoot me a PM.

Now for the BIG question, why did I not do anything for an entire year? If you read my only other updating fanfiction, you already know the answer, but for those who don't the answer is simple… if a bit depressing

Around winter break of 2015 my father's condition… worsened considerably. I literally was at his beck and call for my entire break. 3 months later he passed away from cancer. These last months I was… coping with it.

Now, this does not mean I am trying to get people to review if only to offer their condolences. This is explanation is just that, an explanation. Honestly I would prefer that reviews are on my story content rather than real life happenstances. I hope I am more active from now on, but only time will tell.

For those that may have forgotten, or people that are only starting now, I am going to repeat something that was mentioned in Chapter 2. The term "Synchro Climbing" is an actual term that Dragunity players use. This is the process in which the player uses Dragunity Dux to get Phalanx, synchro up to Vajrayana, get Phalanx again, then summon out some level 8 synchro monster. Instead of being absolutely repetitive and typing Phalanx fifteen to twenty times per duel, I use the term to "Synchro Climbing" to pick up the pace for the duels.

At this point as well, for those who care about technicities of the double duel system that I have in place. Simply put, the two players share one field, also that turn player stays 'active' for one turn after theirs, allowing them to choose to activate cards in response to opponent's summons and card effects. This is basically the same as all of Yugioh Tag Force games.

The important note is that when the 'active' cannot access the partner's side deck, so for this case, Yuto could not activate shadow impulse when Stardust Spark was destroyed because he did not have any level 8 dragon synchros in his extra deck.

Once again, sorry for the wait, and thank you for reading.


End file.
